The San Pedro Town Council is working to restore the beach of Ambergris Caye following the passage of Tropical Depression II which moved across Belize on Monday June 17th. While the island and the country was spared from the worst, Ambergris Caye was battered with the rains, wind and the waves which certainly did roll in its fair of debris that washed along the shore lines.
On Tuesday the Mayor of San Pedro Town and Vice Chairman of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) – San Pedro Operational Committee Daniel Guerrero was supervising beach restoration work. “We did an assessment of the island immediately after the passage of the storm and we are ready to work to restore the island and bring it back to normal. The storm brought mostly debris and brought land erosion in some areas. What happen is that the sand from the shoreline was brought more on shore. The only place underwater is San Mateo. A few of the private docks were damaged so it is not much. It will take us two to three days to clean up the beach from the debris and we should be up and running like normal,” said Guerrero who was accompanied on site by members of NEMO San Pedro Branch.
Yesterday, Guerrero announced that he would need all hands on deck to clean the beach after the storm. Since early, beachfront residents were out cleaning up the debris and other stuff that washed up on beach. Joining in the cleaning was a group of 49 travelling from Raleigh, North Carolina USA who are on the island doing missionary work at the Holy Cross Anglican School. The group comprising mostly of high school students accompanied by nine adults joined workers with rakes and wheelbarrows to clean up the debris left behind by the storm.
Speaking to The San Pedro Sun group leader Liz Stroff said that while on the island, they saw the notice sent out by The San Pedro Town Council for volunteers to assist in work to restore the island after the storm. “We are on the island and are currently doing volunteer work at Holy Cross Anglican School. We saw that the council was in need of volunteers and since the school is closed because of the storm, we decided to bring the group out to help along the beach. Our original goal was to come and volunteer so it wasn’t a difficult thing to redirect our efforts to cleaning up the beach. We are happy that we are able to assist the island in recovering from the storm. We have a beach and we know what it is after a storm and what it brings up on the beach so we can relate to the island,” said Stroff. “We are happy and sincerely grateful to the group from Carolina who came out to assist us in the beach clean up,” said Guerrero.
The SPTC provided the youngsters with rakes and wheelbarrows as well as drinking water. Mayor Guerrero and members of his council along with NEMO personnel joined the group on the beach near Boca del Rio Park to show their support and appreciation. The San Pedro Sun would like to thank the group and the Town Council in keeping La Isla clean! Kudos guys!
