KINGSTON, Jamaica—The Jamaica Public Service says 50,000 or about seven per cent of its customers have been affected by outages caused by a Squall Line, which began affecting the island at approximately 12:15 pm on Monday.

The company, in a media release on Monday, said the Squall Line, which brought unusually strong winds, caused sporadic outages in several communities across Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester.

“The Company’s Incident Command Centre has been activated to manage the situation and facilitate a safe and swift restoration response. “The Incident Command Centre allows us to coordinate our response efforts, prioritise the most affected areas, and mobilise the necessary crews and equipment to get the job done,” said JPS’ Senior VP on Energy Delivery, Blaine Jarrett.

“Our emergency response teams are already carrying out restoration where it is safe to do so,” he said. “More than 50 per cent of the customers initially affected have already been restored. However, as the system continues to move across the island, more customers may lose supply. Our teams will continue to work to restore service as safely and as quickly as possible,” he continued.

JPS is urging members of the public to exercise caution, especially around fallen wires, and to report outages or hazards using the JPS mobile app, website, or Customer Care Centre at 888-CALL-JPS (888-225-5577).