The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY three months after Hurricane Dorian devastated the northwestern Bahamas, electricity supply to the clinic, government offices, airport and water plant in Abaco has been restored, according to Bahamas Power and Light officials yesterday.

These services were restored on November 21.

“Once the critical infrastructure within Marsh Harbour has been restored, repairs in the remaining areas will continue,” BPL said. “In fact, work has already commenced to restore infrastructure within Marsh Harbour. The settlement of Marsh Harbour has several key substation locations, including the PWD substation, which is at an advanced stage of restoration with 93 distribution poles replaced and five anchors restored. BPL intends to use this line to add some solar street lighting within the main city areas.

BPL’s latest update on the restoration process in Abaco came weeks after it announced that power had been restored from Crown Haven to Cooper’s Town in North Abaco and from the Wilson City Power Station to Sandy Point in South Abaco.

And, according to the power provider, the next area of focus will be Central Pines.

The statement added: “BPL intends to commence restoration within the Central Pines area on December 2, 2019. However, given the extensive damage in Marsh Harbour, we will have to work closely with inspectors from the Ministry of Works before supplies can be restored.”

Meanwhile, on Green Turtle Cay, BPL said: “All overhead line work in the main town (GT Estates) has been completed. We are presently constructing a temporary generation site at the Treasure Cay Airport Ferry Terminal...the present projection is that the temporary generating equipment will be online within the next week, with supply restored to the main township by November 30.”

The powerful Category Five storm, which devastated Abaco and Grand Bahama in early September, flattened homes and businesses, while destroying a number of power lines on both islands.

However, since then, the power provider has remained committed to restoring electricity on Abaco and returning the island back to some normalcy for its residents.

To date, BPL has received eight Caterpillar XQ2000 (3516) generators, which will be used to power communities once repairs are completed and the transmission lines have been rebuilt.