Bill, read my message again. I reported what I received from Nellie Gomez. I have no personal knowledge of anything (same as you) since I am not there. I do not post information as FACT unless I have personal knowledge, and when I repeat info I have received, I identify its source. I do believe that rumors of diastrous occurrences should not be posted until they are CONFIRMED by eye witnesses.
I am unclear as to what the "friends on the beach" means comment means. If you are referring to Nellie, you must not know her, or you would know that she is a native San Pedrana. She is one of the island's most hard working and successful business women, who worked her way up the hard way from being an underpaid hotel assistant manager to owning three businesses and does not lay around "on the beach" eating bon bons like a tourist.
She has been active in the community for a long time, as have many members of her family, and is very well respected by and involved in the community. She would not make a statement about a fact based on speculation, when she doesn't know something she will tell you "I don't know."
She says that there are no local people whose whereabouts are unknown to their family, friends, or neighbors, and that efforts were made to ensure this is so; and that the town council is not hiding mass graves. I believe her to be a reliable source of information, whereas the people who have posted these rumors have not provided ANY sources.
I am sorry that you cannot locate your friends. My family has friends and acquaintances we have not heard from either, but I am assuming they are OK until I hear otherwise, based on the reliable sources I have spoken to.
From what Nellie has told me, most of Ambergris Caye does not have power, most business establishments are closed, most people do not have telephone services. Everyone is very busy with repairs and the local people do not have time or ability to respond to queries from their friends in the US. They are dealing with day to day survival issues.
But the fact that you do not know where your friends are is NOT reliable evidence that they are "missing," sick, injured or dead. It just means that you still lack the information. The only suggestion I can make is that you telephone someone you know down there who is a relative or friend or neighbor of the people you are searching for or ask someone to carry a message to such people and ask them to check and leave word with someone who has access to email.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
