A month in darkness

Whenever Kareen Melbourne, a resident of Comfort Hall in Manchester, needs to charge her phone or any other electronic device, she has to travel to the neighbouring community of Oxford or to the town of Balaclava in St Elizabeth to do so. The cost is $200 per charge.

Over the past month, the head of the infant department at the Comfort Hall Primary and Infant School said she has spent more than $15,000 on a service she would usually do at her home or her place of work.

Her community is one of several in the parish that are still without electricity a month after Category 4 Hurricane Beryl pummelled the island, plunging sections of the country into darkness.

Residents in the community are lamenting the inability to store meat, the unexpected expense of buying gas for generators and lamps, and the danger being without street lights places them in.

Not having electricity for weeks has been a source of great inconvenience for Melbourne, who said it is also impacting preparations for the reopening of school on September 2.

“It is a challenge because we have to be up and down over the whole place to get charge [for electronic devices] and you know persons are calling me for information re school, and it’s really a challenge. Sometimes by the time I get a call it cut off and all a dat, so it is really difficult,” she said.

She added that students in the community are also unable to get their uniforms made.

Leader of the Goshen Gospel Chapel in the community, Lorna Whyte, said the lack of electricity has also impacted the services held at the church.

Sixty-eight-year-old Errol Whyte operates a shop in the community, and told The Gleaner that his business has lost more than $100,000 over the past month.

“Meat kind and ting like dat we can’t really sell it and wi did have some meat that we have to give away or throw away. Sales going down because people want cold tings to buy,” he said.

MAJOR BUSINESS LOSS

In the neighbouring community of Oxford, bar owner Mellicia Isaacs was looking forward to the increased sales from cold beverages that she would usually receive during the summer months. But, instead, the extended period without electricity has caused losses for her business, upwards of $100,000.

“One month now, no light, business slow because only certain place have light, so it bad fi wi because di customers dem nah go come weh wi deh, dem aguh go weh light deh. Nobody nuh wah no hot liquor because time hot,” she said.

She explained that electricity has been restored to some areas in her community, and she is concerned about the lack of alacrity from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) in reconnecting other areas.

“They come drive around and have paper looking up on the (light) posts. When you ask dem how soon wi can get back light, they will tell wi seh one week time, and den that’s it, wi nuh see dem back… wi tiad a dem,” she said.

Rohan Kennedy, councillor for the Mile Gully division, shared similar sentiments, blasting JPS for what he says is the lack of urgency displayed by the company in restoring electricity to rural communities.

He noted that a number of communities in his division, including Oxford, Evergreen and Epping Forest, are still without electricity.

“I am very disappointed with the company because the majority of the constituents are poultry farmers, some would have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in chicken immediately after the hurricane and then they have chicken in coop now they want to be slaughtered that they can’t, and the mature birds are dying,” he said.

Describing the situation as frustrating, Kennedy shared that two residents in his division have been hospitalised as the medication to treat their illnesses needs to be refrigerated.

“When the residents, the majority of them, look around and they don’t see a lot of damage and they are wondering why it is taking them so long, it’s frustrating,” he said.

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has given JPS an August 12 deadline to restore electricity to its more than 20,000 customers who re still without power. Failure to do so will result in the light and power company facing a $2-million fine.

Last Friday, JPS told The Gleaner that it is employing its best measures to ensure it meets the deadline.

However, Kennedy said he was not very optimistic that the power company will meet the target date.

“They have put out a lot of deadlines previously and they haven’t met it, so I only hope they meet this one. I can tell you the residents, especially in the Oxford, Comfort Hall and Evergreen area, they are up in arms, they want to go and block the road and bun down di place,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com