I have a few questions concerning NEMO??? Who is NEMO? What is the purpose of NEMO? Six or eight weeks ago there was a storm called Alex and the storm was approximately 40 mile an hour winds when it crossed Caye Caulker, the tourist police came into my restaurant, I had approximately 60 or 70 customers and they said I had to close my bar completely. I said I have several food orders in the kitchen and they said I could serve them in to go boxes as people have to leave. I said to the tourist police that there are about 40 or 45 people that have not eaten yet and they said they had to get out. My question is this what authority does NEMO have to shut down the whole island with 40 mile an hour winds? It was not a hurricane, it was a weak Tropical Storm. What I call there actions that day is abuse to the people that live on Caye Caulker. The past Tropical Storm called Matthew, one of my customers got a phone call at 9PM Thur. night and Matthew was just about to enter Central America. She is apparently a member of NEMO and she said the message was to start evacuation of Caye Caulker. I understand she made some phone calls. I watched several hundred tourists leave the island the following morning, 2 and 3 boats at a time and the storm was just entering Nicaragua at the time with 40 mile an hour winds. They also shut the water taxi down, where do these people called NEMO get all this authority to shut down our island any time they feel like it for no reason. My daddy taught me well if it is raining go in the house you won’t get wet and I don’t need NEMO running my life. It is abuse and wrong. One last question when is NEMO going to stop abusing the residents of Caye Caulker? No other city or village in the country gets this kind of abuse.

I like you sportsbar.
I'm also very annoyed by them and wonder if having made a declaration that there is an emergency do they some how benifit monetarily.
I'm sure this will stir a hornets nest of Hurricane hysteric fans but I'm very suspicious of their intentions and like wise don't need them controlling my business.
Don't need them ,don't want them. Bug off NEMO!
(that should be good for several pages of posts)

I believe that the early organization of evacuations etc when tropical storms/Hurricanes approach comes from the lessons learn't from Hurricane Keith or Mitch (I cant remember which) where Ambergris caye was being evacuated but they ran out of time and thousands of people were left on the island to ride the Hurricane out on the island.

There were not enough boats to get people off the island, the estimations of numbers of people on the island were vastly underestimated and it ended with many who wanted to leave the island stranded on the docks with a massive Hurricane bearing down on the island.

There was a lack of organization lack of organized boats to get people off the island in plenty of time etc I was on the island for those Hurricanes and I tell you it was not a fun day out at the beach so while you may feel its over the top it takes a hell of a lot of work to evacuate an island and now both islands are much more busy than they were for KEITH or Mitch.

NEMO was born out of a necessity to have a solid plan of action in place for Hurricane Prepardness in the past Hurricanes/scares etc they have done a great job in the past helping people co-ordinating evacuations setting up shelters overseeing security on the island during storms etc.

Its all great bashing them but somone has to make the call and I expect with over 20,000 on the island its a helluva job to organize all that and if NEMO is not doing it who will ?

Whether things have changed since i have been gone I dont know but when I was there NEMO was well respected and praised for the work they did for the islanders during Hurricanes and Hurricane prepardness.

I wonder what happened when I see someone like Elbert start bashing on them.

Gaz Cooper

Elbert bashes everything without thought of consequence.
NEMO is a vital function and should be respected and supported!

I don't need intervention in how I conduct my life or business from
anyone,
especially resent a committee of volunteers from the community dictating martial law, closing airports, scarring away tourist in false alarms and telling be I have to evacuate and abandon my home in an emergency while its looted,
especially a group of amateurs that get off on the temporary authority and importance they receive form the situation.
I could have an attitude.

For the recent TS Matthew, TS Karl and TS Alex I seem to recall that NEMO did not issue any evacuation orders

There was a tropical storm warning for the coast of Belize during TS Matthew and the met office issued a small craft warning and mariners were asked to cease all unnecessary travel and to stay in port.

Remember that NEMO posts its official notices on the website and provides the notice to the radio and tv stations for broadcast. All the stuff you hear on the streets tends to be rumours and speculation.

It sounds like Caye Caulker doesn't have its own dedicated NEMO representative stationed on the island.

NEMO has a large support team of local doctors, nurses and indeed concerned members of the public that volunteer their time to assist with co-ordination when preparing for emergencies, during emergencies and after the threat has passed but the consequences remain.

If your NEMO volunteers are not capable of handling the task at hand they should be called out and discharged.

I think that the NEMO group on Ambergris Caye is working well at this time. They have been prepared and haven't done or said anything to make anybody hit the panic button.

It sounds as if the problems on Caye Caulker may have been caused by misinterpretation, misunderstandings and miscommunication.

While it is nice and peaceful this might be a good time for the Village council to look into the situation and ensure that it has a solid team ready for when (hopefully if) disaster strikes.

At a certain point in an emergency, such as a storm, the local head of NEMO has the ultimate authority and power in that area to close whatever they wish - I beleive that also includes the right of commandeering your property and or vehicle/boat if deemed appropriate for their/the peoples needs.

These two cases seem extreme as I imagine their authority only comes into power at a certain point ie official Hurricane Watch/Warning. Get in touch with whoever heads up NEMO on the mainland and find out the extent of their powers and at what point they come into force using this example as a reason to learn more of their organisation and to help integrate it and their actions, rather than a stick to beat them with. I'd be interested to know too.

IMHO>>> From a personal standpoint I have some comfort in knowing that someone has documented my whereabouts during the storm...Just in case I come up missing. The NEMO group that has contacted me has put together an excellent list of people on and off the island so that we all can be accounted for before-during-after a storm......Sportsbar sorry to hear about your business being interrupted, it should certainly be addressed with your local NEMO rep....

Hmmm....and all this time I thought that folks were building elevated concrete structures on the Cayes so that they could host "Hurricane Parties" like we have in the southeast US.

Ah..sounds like some scamming going on in Caye Caulker. I would definitely check the protocols and the powers vested in your NEMO rep and ally with the locals about the bussinees impact. That said.. Caulker does not have the clout/resouces to ever evacuate. AC did but no longer can really evacuate..really...non-residents is all that they intend to ever move..tourists andisland visitors from the mailand.

As I read all this it seems that the Tourism Police were the ones that closed him down, not NEMO. As Amanda pointed out it seems there was no evacuation order. If that is the case it would seem the police were the ones at fault not NEMO. Am I missing something?

I was monitoring VHF 16 during our run south and the coast guard were contacting the outer island resorts recommending evacuation. There were frequent warnings to mariners to head for safe harbour and listing those that were recommended, notices of the closure of Big Creek and BC port but nothing on the inner cayes. I was actually surprised about the amount of clear communication that was being broadcast.

Lloyd,
Sounds like the minister of tourism should be involved in this BS. The Tourist Police have been nothing but a problem ever since they arrived on the island. Shutting you down during a drizzle is outrageous! They have no authority to do this unless an actual emergency was called, and then; some clear communication should follow. Keep my tap flowing. I'll be sitting in front of it soon.
Russian Mike

"Caulker does not have the clout/resouces to ever evacuate.."
We evacuated for Mitch with success.We are a boat based society, not a car based one.Our sea resources -crew and boats-compared to our population is a lot larger than AC or any other place I have seen.

So sorry about the sportsbar ,It does good buisness most days ,the intrusion not ok because that causes tourist to panic and fear begins to grow ,no need for that on small island.They must be calm and cool when communicating let owner do the follow thru.Give a time warning .

Caye Caulker does a great job of evacuation, with a smaller population and in previous evacuations with water taxi boats leaving one after another every 15 minutes until all that want to go have gone and pretty much the same returning I would think my chances much better on C.C. than A.C...again it seems certain folks make statements as if they have some knowledge of the situation, I did evacuate some years ago,pretty much last minute took my dog with me on the water taxi and then a bus up to Cayo with her as well, never felt any stress that I would have a problem leaving...getting back was a bit more crowded a bit fewer boats returning.

As we get "tons of arrogant overbearing tourists and we're all gangsters" we're all rich and can all afford to fly when there's an Evac so it's really easy for us...............or is it still too raw for a joke!?!?!?!?

Caye Caulker and San Pedro are both getting better and better at evacuations . We all have room for improvement , if anyone can see an improvement that can be made ,get involved ; and help fine tune the system . It takes leaders that don't give up , and those leaders need support . If no one gets involved , we can only expect the same out come . Has anyone started to form an advocacy group on Caye Caulker ?? Sorry Sports Bar ,that hurts .