Squall line affected power for 10,000 people, says JPS

Friday night’s squall line, which hit the eastern through to the western end of the island, affected approximately 10,000 Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) customers, the utility provider has said.

In a release Saturday, the light and power company said JPS teams responded “almost immediately” afterward, addressing outages in some parishes. The work to restore affected customers continued yesterday, it added.

“According to our information, squall lines, which can be quite destructive, did affect some of our infrastructure. While we don’t have a complete picture of the extent of the damage incurred, we are aware that approximately 10,000 customers were affected — located in sections of the parishes of Kingston & St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon, St Ann, and St Elizabeth,” JPS said.

Up to Saturday night, the company said it had successfully restored about half of this number, and is continuing to restore the remainder of customers, as well as those affected by Hurricane Beryl.  

The company also lamented the additional adverse weather experience which had further impacted some customers.

“It can be terribly frustrating, for each of our customers who are without supply, but rest assured — restoring your service is our top priority. We are most certainly pulling out all the stops to get electricity back to you.

“You can count on that,” JPS said.

In the meantime, the company acknowledged that some customers may experience delays in response time, due to the much higher than usual volume of calls and queries.

JPS assured, however, that its teams are working tirelessly to address the various issues, even as it appeals for patience.

‘We are grateful to our customers for their continued encouragement, support and understanding, at this time the company notes,” it said.