Upset St Elizabeth residents block roadway to protest ongoing Beryl power outage

Upset residents have blocked the Fullerswood main road in St Elizabeth to protest the lack of electricity in the area since the passage of Hurricane Beryl more than a month ago.

They used trees, stones and other debris to block the roadway.

The action comes a day after the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) advised that it has set a deadline of August 31 for the restoration of service to sections of St Elizabeth where its distribution infrastructure was almost totally destroyed.

“Based on the extent of the devastation, the electrical infrastructure that supplies sections of St Elizabeth needs to be completely rebuilt. In some areas, the network will need to be redesigned and lines relocated. The rebuilding process will be challenging and tedious, because of the difficult rocky terrain in which we are working.

“We are acutely aware of the frustration being experienced by our customers who are still without electricity, and we know this is not what they want to hear from us right now,” JPS advised in a media release on Thursday.

Head of the St Elizabeth police Superintendent Coleridge Minto says the police are currently on the scene of the protest and are awaiting additional support to have the roadway cleared. 

Motorists are being advised to expect some delays and are being encouraged to use alternative routes.

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