Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Belize Times
1
Were We Ready? SUNDAY OCTOBER 31, 2010
Issue No. 4717
$1.00 www.belizetimes.bz
Last weekend, the forty- nine year moratorium on hurricanes slamming the Belize District was r udely broken when a seemingly undersized , barely a Categ or y 1 Hur ricane Richard made landfall around Gales point Manatee in the Belize Rural Central, some twenty two miles southwest of Belize City. In its aftermath, the question
has to be asked “How prepared were we if a tiny storm can shut down schools for a week, damage the Bliss to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and priceless lost heritage and cause severe storm surge damage to almost all public buildings along the Foreshore in Belize City? W h a t wa s t h e p r e p a r e d n e s s plan for the Judiciary and to what
extent was it implemented? We are aware that a large percentage of Public Officers did not show up to secure their offices and in the case of the Court of Appeals, even case files were reportedly not secured, resulting in a suspension of the activities of the Court as they now try to reconstr uct water damaged case files. Clearly, there was a lack
of preparedness here. Then there were the numerous 911 calls in the height of the storm and several near catastrophic rescues of residents in the Hattieville and Ya b r a a r e a s. H a t t i e v i l l e , i n t h e Tropical Park and Mile 17 sections, had no designated shelter. When the ang r y winds blew in just five (Cont'd on pg. 3)
For the first time since Monday, October 8th, 2001 when Hurricane Iris, a Categ or y 4 stor m on the Safir Simpson Scale pummeled the souther n por tion of Belize, the country was again str uck directly by another hurricane. Unlike Iris Hurricane Richard was albeit much weaker in strength as a Category 1 stor m and caused no deaths, but
it still caused its own share of damages, ripping up some of the weaker infrastr ucture around the central and southern portions of the country, and leaving many of the poorer families on Belize City's southside and areas south of the Belize District homeless. Richard star ted to get the (Cont'd on pg. 3)
The hot-button issue of the proposed sale of Belize Telemedia Limited’s shares to the public and the Social Security Board again took center stage this week. First the BTL Employees Trust, which had only last week argued before the Belize Court of Appeal that the takeover of the majority shareholding of the company’s last
year August was unconstitutional, issued at release warning prospective buyer to contemplate this salient fact. T h e Tr u s t s a i d t h a t h av i n g had the opportunity to review the prospectus and that in relation to the litigation brought by the Trustees, the prospectus provides only partial (Cont'd on pg. 3)
BTL Trust warns Richard causes millions in damages buyers of BTL shares
Mr. Barrow - Da Your Name Stink da Road!