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Today we went to san Pedro - which was the first large community to feel the force of the hurricane. With the help of imagery courtesy the San Pedro Town Council and photographer Jorge Aldana, Daniel Ortiz reports:...

Daniel Ortiz reporting
San Pedro, like the other parts of the country hardest hit, was on Day 2 of the journey to recovery.

Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Jr., who acts as the NEMO chair on Ambergris Caye, told us that at the height of the activity, the hurricane shelters on San Pedro had a maximum intake of 400 people.

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"People in the shelters, we still have a few not many, but at one point we had as much as probably over 400 total in the 3 shelters."

And in the aftermath of the storm, the NEMO leaders canvassed the entire Island to find that like in the Belize District, there were a number of residents whose home was smashed to bits by Hurricane Earl.

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"Where we suffered the most damage of homes is in the San Mateo Area, I think it was about 6 homes that were totally destroyed and another 3 or 4 that were extensively damaged."

So, we went into the San Mateo area where these residents were hurting the most, and we found Anthony Samuels who told us that his home almost collapsed during the height of the hurricane's passing over Belize. He said that he, his brother and his neighbor had to make emergency repairs in the dark, under the howl of the wind, the torrential rain, and the rising water coming from the nearby lagoon on one side and the sea on the on the other. They even had to brave being attacked by crocodiles native to that nearby lagoon.

Voice of: Anthony Samuels - Resident, San Mateo Resident
"During the course of the storm we saw that the front wall of the house, that you're looking at now, the door next to the window and right behind the window there's a joining in the house. First what happened was that the door broke in half, I built so that's what made it easier to cover back the door. When we finished with the door and went back inside..."

Daniel Ortiz
"This is all during the storm right?"

Voice of: Anthony Samuels - Resident, San Mateo Resident
"Yes this is approximately around 2-3 o'clock. So the wall there started to cave in above the window. We had to call the neighbor to come over here, Michael Tzul, he came and helped my brother pushed in the wall."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir that must have been dangerous. The breeze and the rain, and knowing that zinc and items can come flying at you."

Voice of: Anthony Samuels - Resident, San Mateo Resident
"Well of course we had to take everything into consideration as far as danger, because everything is flying around. My brother ran downstairs to grab a piece of 2x4 and he hurriedly made it back up because he didn't want to go too far, because the water was at your knee. From it hit 7 o'clock, the water was under your knee and around that time the water was above your knee. So a lot of wildlife and alligators live back here so we didn't want to go too far in the water. We just grabbed a piece of board while bracing the wall from the inside and while we're bracing, one is nailing. That's how we managed to hold the wall together and nail a 2x4 across the wall to stop the front wall from caving in."

He managed to keep his home together, but out on the beachfront a few miles away, the business owners weren't so lucky. Dive shops and resort piers all along the eastern side of the island were destroyed. It will cost thousands to repair, and unknown losses in revenue during the down time.

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"We're we suffered the obvious damage was by the seaside of San Pedro where practically 90% of the piers were either gone of extensively damaged. The dive shops likewise, I would believe that it's only 2 or 3 that are standing but not in a very good shape also. Beach erosion was terrible over here."

Dale Duquett - Owner, Dock's Tiki Bar and Grill
"I have an upper deck so we were actually standing out to watch the storm come in and then while it was going on we really stayed up there for a little while. We saw building where the roof flied off of it. We saw that building that was right there fall into the water and got destroyed. It was amazing the amount of power that Mother Nature put on us."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir did your establishment suffer any sort of damage because of this?"

Dale Duquett - Owner, Dock's Tiki Bar and Grill
"Not too bad, we actually, right here at Dock's Tiki Bar, we had water come through the door and then end up going through the restaurant and actually brought in sand, but in terms of building damage, we actually were fortunate enough not to sustain too much damage. Other beach front properties were actually okay, it was all the docks and the dive shops that were in the water that actually sustained all the damage."

So, we immediately went to speak with one of owners of the Dive Shops damaged by the storm surge and wind. Neftali Lemus and his employees were busy trying to clear up the debris in front of their business, so that they can start to rebuild.

Daniel Ortiz
"What's the cost to just repair the structures? How much do you think you will have to spend?"

Neftali Lemus - Owner, Excite Belize Sailing and Adventures
"Well you know we are hoping to spend as less as possible but roughly about $75,000-$100,000 BZD but the time we're done. We lost most of our docking space, especially for our boats, that's one of our sail boats over there and catamaran, field boats and fishing boats. Also we have a Jet Ski rental place that is right here on our pier too so those guys lost most of their docking space too. tomorrow we should get the other crew coming in so that they can start getting those posts in and we can hopefully in a week or so be up and running again. we have the catamaran which normally goes out anywhere between 12 people to about 24 people a day and 3 or 4 fishing boats go out every day to go on their fishing trips and diving and snorkeling. we're pretty much on a stand still right now but as soon as we have the pier up and running and we can bring the equipment back in and the boats in then we are good to go again."

Daniel Ortiz
"Fortunately you didn't lose any of your equipment."

Neftali Lemus - Owner, Excite Belize Sailing and Adventures
"Oh no, we made sure to put everything away because with the boats and equipment that's all we need to work. The pier, well we can work with that afterwards but the most important thing was to put them away and make sure they were secure before the hurricane hit."

Its a scar for Belize's premier tourism destination, but one which the residents are sure will heal almost completely, and in very short measure.

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"Many of the tourists were evacuated and thank God that their still happy after. I can see like Ramon's and other hotels still have their guests even though they have a lot of debris on the beach in tremendous amounts."

Dale Duquett - Owner, Dock's Tiki Bar and Grill
"San Pedro is a very tourist motivated town so if we hear of beaches that aren't beautiful and dive shops that are not operating, yes I think we're going to take a pretty serious hit. fortunately, if you want to call it that, we're in slow season right now so there's not a big influx of tourism going on right now, so that's a little bit of a blessing in the situation. But in terms of clean up, it's been truly amazing. People instantaneously came out yesterday and started cleaning up."

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"I can see friends and everybody coming together as San Pedro has been known to make sure that we can do this cleanliness as fast as possible."

The NEMO officials have already done a fly-over to assess the damage. Heredia told us that he and his team also did recon on Caye Caulker to see what damage they also suffered.

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - NEMO Chair, San Pedro & Caye Caulker
"Yesterday evening, we flew over Caye Caulker and San Pedro and again over there the damage was more the piers and dive shops and some erosion. I will try to make efforts to go physically over there to have a meeting with them."

Neftali Lemus, the dive shop owner, is also the owner of the Tackle Box Bar , which is getting renamed to Island Tackle Bar. They had a grand re-opening which was planned for Wednesday night. Unfortunately, that's when Hurricane Earl hit Belize, and so they had to postpone that event, and now with the repairs to their pier, the opening date has once again been pushed back.

Going Further North past San Mateo, we're told that hotels such as the Costa Blue Resort, X'tan Ha Resort (pronounced Ish Tan Ha Resort), and the Saphire Beach Resort have closed temporarily to take care of repairs.