The island’s major utility providers on Sunday said while their systems have been primed for the onslaught of Hurricane Melissa, which is now forecast to make landfall Tuesday, indications are that the unprecedented damage they expect to their facilities may require rebuilding, instead of restoration.

On Sunday, Hugh Grant, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), speaking during a joint media briefing of the major utility providers, said the company was bracing for the worst.

“A Category Four hurricane potentially going through the middle of our island could have unprecedented damage on our facilities. Here at JPS it’s likely to be a rebuild and not just a restoration. As we stand now, we are looking at additional preparations to potentially bring in additional resources to barge in or fly equipment in such as bucket trucks, crane trucks, or other equipment that may be required if there is extensive damage on our grid to facilitate safe and timely response,” Grant said.

According to Grant, the utility company has taken all possible steps to ensure stability during the passage of the hurricane.

“We know you are concerned about your homes, your loved ones, your businesses; we also know you are concerned about your light, your telecommunications, and your water. We stand united and we stand prepared; our systems are ready, and our people are prepared,” Grant said while indicating that utility providers had conducted a preparedness drill in March ahead of the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season in June.

“We have also mobilised our incident command structures and we have personnel working 24/7s to facilitate a safe and timely response. Here at JPS one of the significant changes that we made is that we have retainer contracts with overseas line workers to have boots on the ground prior to the storm. We have executed on that and right now we have 71 line workers, more than 30 per cent of our workforce has been augmented with boots on the ground that stand ready to respond to the hurricane once it’s safe to do so,” he added.

Grant, in the meantime, appealed to the public to exercise patience in the event of service disruptions noting, “We understand what it is not to have our services; many of our own personnel live within service territories. We understand the critical nature and the inconvenience that would be caused. We, however, ask for your patience.”

He also said JPS has prioritised National Water Commission (NWC) loading bays which facilitate water distribution for power supply during the pending emergency.

Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager for telecoms provider Flow, who also addressed the news briefing, said given the current projected path of the brooding system the company’s infrastructure in the hurricane’s direct track will take a beating.

“As it is now projected to hit us as a Category Four or Category Five storm and, given the storm’s intensity, we are really monitoring its projected path and we know all of the infrastructure that’s in the current path that we believe will be battered,” Price admitted.

He, however, said the company has pulled out the stops to ensure speedy restoration.

“We are supported by a regional crisis management team, who is also shadowing our local crisis management team… I want to assure the public that Flow stands at high alert as we prepare for the hurricane. I think we are well placed in terms of what we have to do from a recovery perspective. In some instances, it will be a rebuild, based on the intensity of the winds and the fact that by nature our networks are vulnerable to both weather and all of the technical interruptions,” Price said.

The Flow executive, in the meanwhile, said the entity has shipped in seven or eight towers into Jamaica “in case towers fail” and is prepared to fly in additional personnel to assist with restoration should the need arise.

Price said currently 61 per cent of sites have backup supplies while technical teams positioned strategically islandwide at major sites “will head out into the field as soon as the all clear is given by ODPEM (Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management) to start assessments”.

Meanwhile, Price’s compeer, Stephen Murad, CEO of telecoms provider Digicel, called on Jamaicans to partner with both companies to ensure that critical infrastructure is not damaged or stolen.

Pointing out that pilferage during Hurricane Beryl in July last year significantly hampered recovery efforts, Murad said, “If you take away critical infrastructure — whether you decide to go and steal the diesel or get frustrated because of the security measures and decide to smash everything — it’s gonna take us much longer to provide critical services for our customers and that is just unacceptable.”

“Today’s society is more impatient than it has ever been before, but we really ask you to be patient as we recover. In some instances we are gonna have to rebuild, and that is a fact, and that’s gonna take time,” Murad said.

In the meantime, Stephen Shaw, manager, communication and customer services at the National Works Agency, said with the predictions for extreme flooding and landslides in several sections of the island the agency has done work right across to minimise damage.

Shaw said projections for up to 25 inches of storm water will pose a challenge, given that standard culverts and drains here are “18 inches in terms of diameter”. He, in the meantime, said other challenges will come from downed trees and downed utility lines.

Shaw assured that the entity stands mobilised and will ensure that roads leading to critical entities are cleared as a priority.

At the same time, acting corporate public relations manager at NWC Delano Williams said the entity has mobilised to “maintain water supply for as long as possible”, but urged customers to prepare for inevitable disruptions.

Williams, who indicated that some systems are already going offline due to turbidity, said this was “unavoidable”, but promised that the NWC would “restore as quickly as possible”.