Electricity to be restored in Westmoreland, Hanover within two weeks — JPS
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP) — Despite cautioning that its infrastructure in western parishes must be rebuilt and not merely repaired due to the scale of damage from Hurricane Melissa, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) says electricity will be restored in hard-hit Westmoreland and Hanover within the next two weeks.
The timeline was given by JPS Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant, among other promises he made during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The CEO promised that power would reach Falmouth, Trelawny, including the town, hospital and pier by this week. Supply has already been restored to the southeastern end of St Elizabeth, including Junction and Southfield, he said.
“We did this by doing some creative things on the distribution system to facilitate St Elizabeth being supplied from Manchester. There is, however, a limitation to that … to go further, we would need critical high voltage transmission to be restored. That has been significantly damaged, ” he explained.
Regarding St James, the JPS CEO said, “By the end of the day, we will restore power to Freeport in St James, bringing power to the BPOs and stimulating the economic activity in that particular parish.”
He also indicated that service has been restored to Cornwall Regional Hospital, the ‘Hip Strip’ in St James, as well as several water pumps and Fairview shopping centre in the parish.
Grant maintained that the company understands the frustration of being without power but said, “Be reassured that we are committed to being steadfast and strategic in our restoration activities.”
So far, the country has brought in over 200 linesmen and restored electricity to over 300,000 customers.
“Attacking the hardest hit areas in western Jamaica is a challenge but we are on it … because of the extent of the devastation, this is much more than repair and restore, it is a redesign and rebuild of our facilities,” Grant said.
Citing landslides, he said some of these facilities will have to be redesigned and rerouted but promised that by the end of the week, more detailed restoration timelines would be forthcoming.
“JPS will not stop until we restore every community, every customer and every business, our teams are working 24/7,” he said.
