THE Jamaica Public Service (JPS) yesterday began work to restore power across the island, focusing first on the north coast parishes, even as it continued to assess the extent of the damage wrought by Hurricane Dean to the south coast.

“They are moving quickly to re-establish power generation on the north coast, while they complete their assessment on the south coast,” minister of industry, technology energy and commerce, Phillip Paulwell told the Observer yesterday.

Paulwell said he was also expecting a further update from the JPS on the status of electricity supplies at 1:00 pm yesterday.

On gasolene supplies, Paulwell said retailers were expected to receive additions to their current supplies yesterday. He said that the Petrojam refinery had sustained only minimal damage during the passage of Hurricane Dean and would be resuming petroleum production with the use of its stand-by generators.

“The refinery hasn’t had any (major) damage, and we should be resuming petrol production after 4:00 this afternoon (Monday),” Paulwell said. “We will be using our generators. until JPS gives us the go-ahead,” he added.

Additionally, he noted that the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) was currently carrying out an island-wide assessment of local wholesales and supermarkets in light of the run on them by consumers, as they braced for Hurricane Dean’s arrival.

The CAC, he said, would be calling a meeting of all the island’s major importers and distributors of foods and hardware to determine if fresh imports needed to be expedited.

Paulwell calls urgent meeting of distributive trade

Minister Paulwell has called an urgent meeting of the distributive trade for this morning at 9 o’clock at the ministry on Trafalgar Road.

Paulwell called the meeting to address food availablity and distribution in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean’s impact on the island.