MANDEVILLE, Manchester — With thousands of households still without power and mostly southern parishes uncertain as to when electricity will be restored, generators are in high demand with even used ones being sold rapidly.

Calbert Powell, proprietor of Mercal Electrical in Nashville, Mandeville, says he has worked on close to 200 generators since last Friday, two days after Category 4 Hurricane Beryl battered Jamaica’s southern coast.

“Some of them we have to say, ‘We can’t help them’, because we don’t have the parts. We have to put in twice the time we normally work. Right now we lay aside all the other jobs in order to fix generators, because generators are in demand now,” he told the
Jamaica Observer on Monday.

Powell explained that the demand for repairing generators is so high that he has received malfunctioning units from four parishes primarily.

“All the way from Clarendon, St Elizabeth, Manchester, and St Ann…It is not just me alone, it spread across those who do the repairs, so it comes from those four parishes,” Powell said as he repaired a 5,700-watt unit.

He pointed to a number of generators in the back of his pickup, telling the newspaper that they had arrived from Kingston.

“Persons in Kingston selling their generator, because they weren’t affected much [by the storm],” he added.

Powell said the last time he saw this volume of demand for generators on the south-central coast was in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

“It [hurricane] didn’t happen for a while, so people were selling their generators. I used to sell generators; right now I don’t even have any,” Powell said.

He argued, though, that investments in renewable energy is the best option.

“A 5,000-watt generator that can run a two-bedroom house can run you between $80,000 and $120,000 now. Because of inflation the cost goes up. You used to be able to get it for between $60,000 and $80,000. Right now if you can go solar, it is better,” he said.

“People have to be giving away whatever meat they have… I gave away some inverters that you can hook up to the batteries in your car and you can get light,” he added.

Powell pointed to the devastation in St Elizabeth where thousands of families are still without power.

“They are in a worse off condition, because they are maybe weeks before they got current. People who have businesses like shops and bars are looking for generators. People from even St Elizabeth came here searching from Friday. Hundreds of people checking for generators. Those who have generators, like second-hand or [companies] selling them, they all sold out,” he said.

He believes many Jamaicans were prepared for Hurricane Beryl but have been shocked by the scale of the destruction it has left.

“It was being announced before about the category of the storm, so I don’t think it hit people by surprise, but they never expected that it would do as much damage and that the repair to have electricity would take so long. The solution after the storm is what is giving people problems right now,” he said.

With the Ministry of Health and Wellness last week reporting at least three cases of carbon monoxide poisoning-related to the use of generators, Powell is warning Jamaicans to be cautious in how they use the units, the majority of which are powered by petrol and diesel fuel.

“You can’t operate it in an enclosed area, because the fumes are poisonous. When you are refuelling it, you have to ensure that you shut off, refuel and don’t let it spill. Some people don’t know how to engage it in connecting the right wires, so you need people who really know about it. A lot of people try a thing for themselves, so that is where the danger comes. They have a little knowledge and little knowledge is dangerous,” he said.