Jamaica: Power restoration efforts ramped up

CMC – The light and power company, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), is promising that most of the island should be back on the national grid by Saturday.

According to the company’s Media Relations Manager Audrey Williams, JPS work crews have ramped up efforts to restore power to affected communities across the island, especially smaller pockets still in darkness.

“The vast majority of our customer base will be energised come Saturday night…Yes, we will still have a number of smaller areas that remain out of service. But we will continue to give our attention to these pockets until they are fully restored, and we’re also redeploying resources where possible, to aggressively push ahead into these areas,” she told Radio Jamaica news.

However, she admitted that the southern parish of St. Elizabeth remains on a different timeline, with their full restoration expected in approximately one month.

Williams said in the coming days, the company intends to move its heavy equipment into St. Elizabeth which was badly affected by the hurricane.

“Not all of St. Elizabeth is damaged. As you would well imagine, it is the areas that are closer to the shoreline and, you know, that whole southern area there that took a beating from Beryl. But our teams are on the ground and we’re going to be having a lot of intensified work. We’re bringing in crews from around the island. Once they’re done with their own parishes, then they’re going to be coming into St. Elizabeth to ramp up the restoration efforts there,” she said.

In a statement on Friday, the JPS said roughly 632,000 of its 692,000 customers, now have electricity.

The company also said that all hospitals and major health care facilities have had power restored.