With Jamaica now feeling the worsening effects of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, JPS is reporting an increase in outages across several parishes.

According to the energy company, several generation units, critical high-voltage substations, and transmission and distribution lines across the island have been forced out of service by hurricane-force winds and lightning.

President and CEO of JPS, Hugh Grant, has indicated that as at 8 am today, approximately 240,000 or 35% of customers are without electricity.

“The most badly affected parishes are St Elizabeth, Manchester, Hanover and St. James. Approximately 75% of customers in these parishes are without power due to the impact of the Category 5 hurricane,” he explained.

JPS is further reporting that St Thomas, Kingston & St Andrew, St Catherine and St. Ann are among the least impacted parishes as at news time, with less than 10% 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.

“There are no plans to shut down the system at this time,” Grant stressed. “We encourage our customers to avoid being distracted by fake news, and stay tuned to official JPS channels for further updates.”

JPS is reminding customers to stay safe and take precautions to protect life and property, as the system has not yet passed the island.