AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Weather Tropical Storms & Hurricanes St Matts, and people who gripe about them

The whiners are indicative of the general lack of personal responsibility that is rampant among most people in the U.S. I know, I am an American. When Americans begin to stop looking to Big Daddy, in whatever form that may take, be it school, work, etc., and begin to make real lives for themselves, humanity will benefit on a much larger scale. IMHO.

JB Obviously, your daughter is safe and sound within your grasp. Until you have spent 4 frantic days not knowing if your child is alive or dead, do not pass judgment on me or mine. I agree the school is an excellant educational facility for learning the art of medicine, but i have concerns that need to be addresses concerning their responsibility to the safety of my child. As a mother you well know that your child may be an adult, but they will always be your child. My young adult was heartsick about leaving those people behind, but of what use would she had been, but a further drain on an already bad situation. When she left that island she gave away everything that she felt they could use out ofher supplies. Furthermore, they were not the first off the island, they waited in line behind the locals . The hotel was nice, but they were packed 10 to room with rain soaked floors. However she did have a roof over her head, which she did not have for several days during a level 4 hurricane. How may hurricanes have you been through in a foerign country? Also, they were not the first to be flown home. They stood in line with every other person there trying to get there own tickets home. They had no one "holding their hands" through out this ordeal. You may call them whiners, but i call them heroes! I was told through out this ordeal that smu was taking care of all arrangements to get them back home, but i received many conflicting statements from them. I am thankfull to god for taking care of my child.

JB Obviously, your daughter is safe and sound within your grasp. Until you have spent 4 frantic days not knowing if your child is alive or dead, do not pass judgment on me or mine. I agree the school is an excellant educational facility for learning the art of medicine, but i have concerns that need to be addresses concerning their responsibility to the safety of my child. As a mother you well know that your child may be an adult, but they will always be your child. My young adult was heartsick about leaving those people behind, but of what use would she had been, but a further drain on an already bad situation. When she left that island she gave away everything that she felt they could use out ofher supplies. Furthermore, they were not the first off the island, they waited in line behind the locals . The hotel was nice, but they were packed 10 to room with rain soaked floors. However she did have a roof over her head, which she did not have for several days during a level 4 hurricane. How may hurricanes have you been through in a foerign country? Also, they were not the first to be flown home. They stood in line with every other person there trying to get there own tickets home. They had no one "holding their hands" through out this ordeal. You may call them whiners, but i call them heroes! I was told through out this ordeal that smu was taking care of all arrangements to get them back home, but i received many conflicting statements from them. I am thankfull to god for taking care of my child.

I sympathize with your concerns for your child. I have friends on San Pedro who are there now. During the storm we were very worried about them, as were their families. I did not see postings criticizing Belize or anyone else from these folks. They had enough sense and experience to realize that things aren't perfect, but with common sense and patience, will work themselves out eventually. When most people go to a foreign country, they do so with the understanding that not everything will always be like it is at home. If you can't accept this, then don't go. It just reflects badly on the rest of us who do. When I first began going to AC in the early 80's, the thing I liked the most about it was the untamed nature of the place, and while infrastructure has improved considerably, you still have to remember that more people go through Houston airport in a few days than live in Belize. Despite this, people are routinely delayed for a day or two in Houston during peak times. Then consider that flights out were cancelled for several days during Keith. That means that a backlog of several hundred people had to be worked in when they did get going again. It is not suprising that the airport got chaotic.

I have been doing nothing but keeping up on the situation in San Pedro via this web site and contacting the Red Cross to make sure the people down there are getting all the help we can send them.

I have read the postings from other students bitching about the school, and I have read the postings from people bitching that we left first.

First, students need to wake up and realize this was a NATURAL DISASTER and there was NO WAY of knowing Keith was coming in that fast, but the school went above and beyond what any other medical school would have done to make sure we were safe and to make sure we made it back to the mainland. Yes, things could have been better but that is not always possible.

Second, to everyone out there who thinks the students should have stayed, let me tell you. A group did stay the night to dispense any available food and supplies. The students were not given a choice, we HAD to leave the island. And last of all, what good would we have done? Our education is barely even begun. Yes, we could help with clean up but at what cost to those already there? We would be more of a burden than a help by staying there. We are now to go to Florida to finish the semester and we will more than likely return to the island in January for next semester.

Personally, I love the people of San Pedro and I love Ambergris. I hope to some day return and practice there. Right now I am just as worried about the people I left behind, so all I or anyone here in the US can do is pray, and send all the help we can.

Please people, stop the bitching. It doesn't help anyone nor will it change anything. Move past it. If you are that upset by it, then don't continue with SMU or find a way to change what went wrong.

My prayers are with everyone in San Pedro. Trevor, Kristian... take care of each other for me. I miss you all.

I am a student and I was in San Pedro during the hurricane. First of all, I would like to say that I am thankful to the Thorntons, Dr. Rene Sersland, Marty, Dr Jackson, Dr Matayoshi, Dr Rosales, Dr Adamson, Dr McIntyre, Dr Ali, Dr Bahar. I appreciate the Thorntons & Dr. Rene Sersland for providing support and whatever information that they could provide for my parents and all the parents. Thank you, Marty, for running this site and for trying to get help for the locals over there. Lost in this entire hurricane situation is the fact that all of the above mentioned profs worked to help the students while at Princess Hotel or on the island of San Pedro itself. I appreciate what all of you did.

I think those people who were not on the island at the time cannot understand what the students are complaining about. We are not complaining about all of those people that have helped out.

I think it's a shame that some of you care to attack the character of the students who went through such an ordeal. You should know that there were a handful of students who stayed to help out in the best way that they could. Not all of the students could stay to help even if they desired to do so b/c Dr Jeffrey Sersland stated himself that this would not be possible. So we had to get as many students off the island as we could.

I apologize for leaving any profs out of the above mentioned list. I only listed those names that I can recall from memory.

I will note that there was a U.S. Army Chopper at the airport on Saturday morning when I myself tried to evacuate. I don't know what that is about. I think the U.S. embassy didn't put us on their priority list - but that's just my opinion. A few tourists were evacuated on that chopper. From my apartment, i saw another chopper flying in the air.

Do you all realize that even though HURRICANE KEITH blind sided us, 2 highly important figures of the campus evacuated the island on their own? I will not mention any names. But one left on Friday - this individual talked to a few students and said that there was bad weather coming in so he/she was leaving. The other important figure left on Saturday - in his/her defense, I will mention that he/she posted some info regarding a tropical storm just before he/she left. It is true that we are not children and that we are all adults. But I just wish someone would've notified by phone, and believe me, there was time to do that. What's done is done. We cannot change anything that has happened. Let's all just make some changes in the event that this happens again. Student input as well faculty input is important.

Peace

My son, Demetrois Louis, SMU Student, is home safe for a few days. He hurts deeply for the people of San Pedro, especially the poor and those who lost their lives. Others can rebuild, but the poor lost big time. They always do, don't they. If SMU had wanted the students to stay on, he would have stayed. It was wise to leave, as they would have been a drain to the water, food, and medical access that the people of San Pedro needed.

we were able to make it out of belize on our own. about 25-30 of us stayed behind an extra day to help out. the reason we left is that we felt like more of a burden on the people. the army troops that flew in were much more trained and equipped to help out the locals than us. bottom line is ok the school did help us out somewhat and yes it was a natural disaster that couldnt be predicted. what bugged me was being LIED to both before,during and after the incident. there is such thing as precautionary measures which the school did not take to ensure the safety of its students.

No one said smu wasn't a good school but the staff sure left that beloved island mighty quick. we were not looking for anyone to hold our hands, and don't tell us we didn't help i left my possesions to a local women including a bike i just bought,all my cloths and other things so that she would have something. i gave her and her family shelter and the little bit we had. what we are saying is that when our families called the school they were told lies that they were taking care of everything making sure their students were safe. (well what a joke that was !!!. We are not children but again the point is the lies that were told. So before you knock us down but yourselves in our shoes were in a foreign country and the people we have trusted with our security have left the island. where was the staff of st. matthews during all this??? they were already home in the good old usa and what burns us is that they didn't even warn the students a hurricane was coming they just up and left. so don't tell me we are heartless !!!!

Most of the people who travel to foreign countries don't need a nursemaid or security force to travel with them to assure that everything is ok. There are two exceptions to this - Presidents or Prime Ministers, and small children, who usually travel with their parents.