When Tropical Storm Gustav washed away the Harbour View Bridge last week, it also took with it a large span of one of Cable & Wireless Jamaica’s (C&WJ’s) critical fibre cables that carries a significant amount of the company’s Internet traffic.

C&WJ’s repair crew were early on the scene, but since there was no way across the raging waters of the Hope River, they faced the challenge of getting a new piece of cable across the river from the Kingston side to be spliced on the St Thomas side.

Lots of discussions took place and lots of suggestions were made and subsequently thrown out. One of the more amusing ideas was to get Olivia McKoy, who represented Jamaica in the Javelin Throw at the recent Beijing Olympics, to see if she could attach the cable to a javelin or another like object and hurl it across. Another more serious suggestion was to get some kind of pneumatic “gun” and shoot the cable to the other side.

Eventually, Corey Rowe, one of C&WJ’s drivers, saved the day by tying the cable to a rock and, with a mighty throw against the prevailing gale force winds, landed the cable on the other side.

Five hours later, the cable was spliced and full service was restored to C&WJ’s customers.

In the end it was a good old ‘low-tech’ solution that facilitated the delivery of a ‘high-tech’ service.