According to the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), the Parish of St. Elizabeth has suffered near-catastrophic damage to its local power grid and system, with 257 light poles downed in the parish of St. Elizabeth as a result of Hurricane Beryl.

While in parliament on Tuesday, the 9th of July, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who announced this in Parliament on Tuesday, July 9, also noted that 255 insulators and cross arms had also been damaged or destroyed, with another 105 conductors and 13 transformers suffering the same fate.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, the Category 4 storm that lashed Jamaica with winds of over 140 miles per hour and several inches of rainfall, the south-central belt of parishes proved to be the hardest hit.

It was here that the centre of Hurricane Beryl came closest to the country, briefly making landfall before continuing westward. Clarendon, Manchester, and St. Elizabeth had been hit hard, with the latter suffering the most damage.

In his address to the lower house, Holness said that while efforts were already underway to restore the parish to its pre-Hurricane status, the necessary assessments and repairs combined would likely take several weeks to complete. However, already some progress is being made. 

Daryl Vaz, Minister for Science, Energy, and Technology, has stated that St. Elizabeth was the only parish to not have any electricity, but that efforts were already being made to fix this issue.

On July 9th, electricity was restored to the most critical buildings and operations in St. Elizabeth, with the Black River Hospital and several NWC water pumping stations going back online.

Winsome Callum, the JPS director of corporate communications, when interviewed, said she was unable to provide further information on the damage inflicted on light posts, transformers, and the like for the other thirteen parishes.

“[We] will be in a better position to do so after a detailed assessment is completed. This could take at least another week as we work to complete work across the island,” she said. 

Concerns have also been raised about the nature of the light poles used by the Jamaica Public Service, many of which are wood. This has led many to speculate that it was these wooden posts that proved unreliable during Hurricane Beryl and that they had given way.

Winsome Callum was quick to refute these claims, noting that it was not just wooden light posts that had failed during Hurricane Beryl and that they had still proven to be largely reliable.

“There are no plans to stop using wooden poles,” Callum claimed. “Many of the poles damaged during the hurricane were in fact concrete.”

When asked about the prospect of investing in underground electric wiring, Callum reiterated that such an initiative was not within the Jamaica Public Service’s purview but that of the government.

“The decision regarding whether the country’s power lines should be run underground is one that would be made by the government and the regulator,” she said. “This is a policy decision, not a JPS decision.”

Callum stated that there were several benefits and drawbacks that would come with investing in underground electric operations. The most major issue would be the expenses that would come with such a project, which the corporate communications director made clear would be incredibly costly.

“It is estimated that it would be seven times more expensive to place the lines underground compared to keeping them overhead. This is a cost that would ultimately be reflected in customers’ bills,” she said.