KINGSTON, Jamaica — With Jamaica now feeling the worsening effects of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company is reporting an increase in outages across several parishes.

According to President and Chief Executive Officer of JPS, Hugh Grant, approximately 240,000 or 35 per cent of JPS customers are now without electricity with the most badly affected parishes being St Elizabeth, Manchester, Hanover and St James.

Grant noted that approximately 75 per cent of customers in these parishes were without power due to the impact of Melissa.

Grant also reported that St Thomas, Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and St Ann were among the least impacted parishes at 8:00 am with fewer than 10 per cent of customers impacted in each of these parishes.

“We continue to respond and work around the clock to restore our customers in a safe and timely manner,” Grant explained. He was addressing a media briefing at the National Emergency Operation Centre in New Kingston Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, JPS reiterated that it has no plans to shut down the national grid despite fake reports on social media that electricity to the entire island will be shut down on Tuesday.

Minister with responsibility for Energy Daryl Vaz said any power outage will be based on the impact of Hurricane Melissa on the JPS grid.

“The electricity grid has already been impacted by hurricane conditions which have caused several power outages across the island.  Several generating units, critical high voltage substations, transmission and distribution lines across the island have been forced out of service by the hurricane force winds,” said Vaz.

The minister also told the media briefing that the JPS has adequate firm generation online to serve its customers without the use of renewable sources.

“The majority of hospitals continue to be supplied with JPS power except those in Manchester and St Elizabeth such as Black River, Mandeville and Percy Junior hospitals. But I can confirm that they are operating on stand-by generator power,” said Vaz.

“JPS crews continue to respond and restore critical facilities and customers where it is safe to do so.  In the meantime JPS is reminding customers to stay safe and take precautions to protect life and property,” he added.