Following the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, parts of Jamaica, especially St Elizabeth, may remain without electricity for up to a month. Energy and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz provided an update on Monday, announcing that the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) aims to achieve 97% restoration of the island's power by Saturday, July 13, with full restoration in the most affected areas targeted by August 5. Vaz acknowledged the severe impact on St Elizabeth, the only parish completely without power, and confirmed that external help is being considered to expedite recovery.

Monthlong wait for St Bess, but weekend power restoration target for most other areas

Jamaica Gleaner/9 Jul 2024/Ainsworth Morris/Staff Reporter

SOME SECTIONS of the island, especially the hard-hit St Elizabeth, may have to wait at least one month before their electricity connection is restored following extensive damage to the power network with last week’s passage of Hurricane Beryl.

That was the update given by Energy and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz on Monday.

“It is expected that over the next few days, there will be a projected 97 per cent restoration of the island expected by Saturday, July 13. Now, that is outside of the damaged area or the most damaged area,” the minister said.

He noted that a task force has been put together to have electricity fully restored in all affected areas by August 5.

Vaz said 77 per cent – or approximately 533,776 – of JPS customers have had their service restored up to mid-afternoon on Monday.

“St Elizabeth is the only parish, as of right now as we speak, or surely earlier, that does not have any electricity in any part of the parish, and that’s why it’s such a priority to get in there with this team to be able to get going in terms of the restoration,” Vaz said.

He also noted that St James is at 20 per cent left for restoration, a figure expected to be down to one per cent by Friday; St Mary is at 14 per cent left and is to be down to three per cent by Saturday; St Thomas has 16 per cent left for restoration and should be down to one per cent by Friday; Trelawny has five per cent left

for restoration and is due to be down to one per cent soon; and Westmoreland is at 34 per cent left for restoration and is to be down to seven per cent by Saturday.

St Ann is still seeing massive outages with 79 per cent left for restoration. This is scheduled to go down to eight per cent by Saturday. Portmore, with six per cent left, should see full restoration by Wednesday. St Catherine, at 26 per cent left, is scheduled to go down to four per cent by Saturday.

Vaz believes the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has the capacity to fully restore the island with electricity within a matter of weeks.

“I want to just indicate that I was the first one as minister who raised the possibility of seeking external help. We do have and have made arrangements if it is that between now and the time that JPS has given us, that the external help [is needed], we would have already made arrangements and have officers on the table,” Vaz said.

He told journalists that the Cabinet deliberated for a long time on the proposal to seek external help, but the JPS said it would like to continue its assessment in St Elizabeth until Friday and at that point, the power company will tell him whether it needs additional support.

“There [are] mixed feelings, but we have to remember that JPS is a private company, and the truth of the matter is that we have to respect their assessment as they have the technical ability,” he said.

He said if the Government gets involved, it would have to take responsibility for the results, which could end up not being satisfactory.

Regarding full restoration for the badly hit St Elizabeth, Vaz said there is an undertaking by the JPS that the Black River Hospital will be back up and running by midnight today or the latest Wednesday.

“In bringing back Black River Hospital, that will bring back most of the town of Black River. Once that has happened, we would have broken the back of the issues and be able to resolve transmission issues going through,” Vaz said.

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