Some residents and business operators in Clarendon seem to be at their wits’ end with the frequent power outages they have been facing since electricity was restored by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) following the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 3.
Residents in some sections of Sheckles district in the parish have had no electricity since Sunday, Loop News has learnt, with other areas such as May Pen town centre, Hazard Drive, Manchester Avenue, Foga Road, 19 Miles, Mineral Heights, among others, having to contend with frequent outages.
The issue has caused great consternation, as some residents now mull the possibility of having to discard meats and other perishable produce which they re-stocked after having to dump food in the days without power following the hurricane.
For businesses, the loss of productivity is taking a toll as they try to recoup losses amid the downtime since Hurricane Beryl lashed sections of the country, especially Clarendon and St Elizabeth.
“The power came back the Monday after the storm, but it has been on and off. It has been very ridiculous, every five minutes, ‘blup-blup, blup-blup’. It is the worst I have ever seen it,” a printery operator said.
“It is happening right now,” the operator said when contacted by Loop News on Wednesday around midday. “According to one of my customers, the country nuh come back yet.
“I have an electrician in my office right now because my AC was just chipping out. When he checked, we realised the pilot light switch is gone because of the situation with the light (power supply),” the business operator said.
“It kills the network. The machines are on a network and once the power goes down, the network takes some time to comes back up. The internet and telephone are also down once the power goes.”
The power outages have also resulted in longer wait times for customers.
Novia McKenzie of Novi Glo’s Boutique and Variety Store in Mineral Heights, also lamented the disruption to her point-of-sale transactions when the power goes.
“The light keeps going on and off. It has affected the internet service immensely,” said McKenzie.
The power outages are also affecting the delivery of healthcare services, inconveniencing both patients and the service providers.
“It took me four hours to get a prescription filled on Monday at the May Pen Health Centre because the light went every minute, so their system went down. At one point, they told us we could leave and come back the next day because they didn’t know when the system would be back up. Inside the pharmacy was dark,” said Fiona, who added that her home community is also plagued by power outages.
“It slows up the business because you have to wait until the internet reconnects. It is also affecting the medical labs. Every minute it short-circuits, then the internet chips out, so if you’re doing something you have to start over,” a receptionist at a doctor’s office in May Pen said, bemoaning the disruptions to her workflow.
Fiona has another problem. She has been without electricity at home since Sunday.
“We have to be eating all the things we buy up back because we don’t want them to spoil. Right now my freezer is full of meat and we will have to go buy ice to put on them,” she said.
“Whenever you take a taxi, you hear people complaining about the same thing. It’s sickening,” she said. “Every minute light gone in Mocho. We got back light the Sunday after the storm, but the (downed) trees are touching the wires and they put back the power same way,” she stated.
Loop News sought a comment from the JPS, but it was not received up to the time of this publication.
