Galen University, a few miles outside of Santa Elena, had to close down their campus today because the flood dumped mud all over their campus grounds, and inside most of their buildings.
Today, the Director in the Officer of Student Affairs at the University explained what the faculty and staff encountered when they opened up this morning:
Monica Chun, Director of Student Affairs, Galen University
"This morning when we came in it was a complete disaster. Starting with the just the flooring it was covered in mud, the entire thing and then the books, especially the ones closer to the floor are completely damaged and we have to get rid of them because we can't really salvaged those anymore. Then our doors which are glass doors are actually broken from the pressure of the water from last night."
"Apart from the library we have; indoors, the restrooms that were just messed up with the mud and the other classrooms here in campus. Our faculty office was covered in mud and basically the entire lower flat of the campus."
"Moving outside we have under our palapas where we would have the furniture for students - all that is gone. The cafeteria is practically a mess for now, but that's being taken care of now. We are ensuring that we are disinfecting everything and that it's being cleaned before students can come on campus and go on as per normal."
"In terms of our classes because that's a big part of what we do, we are taking out classes for tomorrow up to the Belmopan Campus since we have additional classrooms there. This is where they will sit in their classes for the day. We will evaluate the situation up until tomorrow which will determined for our Saturday classes and then in the upcoming week."
"For now we are just monitoring the situation overall and in terms of the learning experience its definitely something that we weren't anticipating for the most part and we will as we are doing right now try to get things back together and then see what plan we will have in place should this happen and especially if we may have (hope it doesn't) students on campus the next time around."
NEMO also sent out a warning to communities near the Sibun and Belize Rivers to remain vigilant because it is expected that the flood waters from Belize will make its way to these areas via the Mopan and Macal Rivers.
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