Residents of Lions Castle Tenantry in St Thomas now have their electricity back, but they are still hopping mad over what they deem “poor work” by the Barbados Light & Power.
The residents who were without power since last Friday night when Tropical Storm Tomas passed through the island, said the BL&P took too long to restore electricity, and too many wires were still lying loose in the road.
Lynette Clarke, who was one of those affected in the area, had a bigger scare on Tuesday night after her boyfriend’s truck wheels became entangled in the wires causing the vehicle to flip with her two children inside.
“Something needs to be done with those wires. Yes they may have brought new poles, but they can’t leave the wires lying around because it’s not only vehicles, but children who have to pass through there regularly,” she stated.
The residents said on Thursday another truck almost suffered the same fate, but because of its weight, it just “rocked on one side and regained balance”.
What also has the community angry, is that for the whole week they had to watch the nearby Polo Club engulfed by bright lights, while they suffered in darkness.
“That polo club out there is empty, but they would rather light up that rich people’s place than the poor place,” Junior Knight alleged.
Knight said although the BL&P had stated that the club was powered by underground cables, they believed they too should have been given power from those same cables.
“It was very unfair to us down in here. Yesterday they came and they still had to give us power from the underground cable, so they should have done that ever since,” he said, adding that it took less than 15 minutes to restore the power.
However, chief marketing officer Stephen Worme, who explained that the tenantry was usually powered through Stone Gully, said temporary arrangements had been made from the side of the polo club.
“There are still a number of communities around Barbados without electricity and we are asking residents to bear with us. I know it is frustrating to be without electricity, but there was some level of work required in that area, but we don’t have the resources.
“Most of the wires have been removed from the road, so we are asking those passing through the area to proceed with caution, but that will be dealt with this week,” he stated.
Worme said they were several other areas that were still without electricity, but that teams were working around the clock to have it restored. (CT)
