Westmoreland resident “Skilki” was correct when he described a fiery roadblock protest against electricity provider Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) as “caveman business”.

No matter how concerning the complaint, it can’t be right for protestors to prevent others from going to work and/or about their lawful business.

Which is exactly what those protesting in Sheffield, Westmoreland, against the delay in restoring light and power were doing on Tuesday.

Yet the cries of the protestors resonated with many others, still without electricity two weeks after the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

That’s especially so for those who can see no material evidence in their communities to hinder electricity restoration.

“How comes some people get back light and we cannot get back none?” asked Westmoreland resident Mr Shawn Wright.

Another Westmoreland protestor, “Code One”, observed that his community had no broken utility poles or fallen trees hindering electricity restoration, yet his community remained in darkness.

Others elsewhere have similar concerns. In St Elizabeth, for example, many communities on the fringes of Santa Cruz and points north, which were largely protected from Beryl by the Santa Cruz Mountains, remained without electricity up to Thursday.

Yet, reports say electricity restoration was taking place or had occurred in storm-ravaged communities closer to the eye of the storm, on the exposed, southern side of the mountain.

Perhaps there are sound, logical reasons for that. But shouldn’t JPS’s frustrated customers be told in simple, clear terms, the specific reasons for still being without power?

Obviously, JPS, Government, and elected political representatives are making their voices heard on traditional and social media, etc.

But all should appreciate that many people still have little or no media access, precisely because they have no electricity.

This is a time for JPS representatives to get down on the ground and explain the realities to the people on their ‘corners’, in churches, wherever people gather in the most affected areas.

The truth is that communication regarding power restoration has been very poor.

And it is feeding “ginnalship” and “Anancyism” with fraudsters reportedly fleecing the naive.

For us, poor communication is summed up in what was surely a well-meaning comment about St Elizabeth — the so-called breadbasket parish — by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Noting that JPS’s customer base is concentrated in urban centres, the prime minister is reported as saying: “This is not to say that [there] are not significant areas without electricity… So, for context, since the broader parish of St Elizabeth only represents five per cent of the total customer base, that should give a reasonable expectation in terms of how the return of electricity will be effected …”

Does that mean that those in deep, rural areas must necessarily come last?

For many people that’s how it sounds.

Messaging and communication, as a whole, need to improve. Furthermore, JPS, which commands monopoly in the transmission and distribution of electricity, needs to be its own mouthpiece.