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News : Grand Bahama Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


Grand Bahama Power Co. urges residents to stay off the roads as repairs are underway
Oct 8, 2016 - 3:36:15 PM

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Photo: Alfred Anderson

Freeport, Bahamas - The following is an update by Grand Bahama Power Company at 3:30pm on Saturday:

The restoration efforts continue, with employees working diligently to bring relief to residents.

The island was without water and telephone communication is barely functioning. We are working with BTC to ensure that their cell network remains active and the island stays connected as it is presently on back up generation. Today we even refuelled their back-up generators ourselves when they couldn’t get any other assistance.

We also had 3 crews working on Well Field 1 and 6, both of which sustained significant damage preventing the Utility Company from supplying back up generation to the well fields. The crews have worked tirelessly, well into the night to bring relief to this critical issue. Some water is now flowing from Well Field 1 but the Utility Company is rationing it until Well Field 6 is available.

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Photo: Alfred Anderson

We can’t ignore the impact this storm has had on our employees and their families. The hotel where we housed some employee families while their spouses rode out the storm lost most of its roof and the employees had to be evacuated to the ground floor of the hotel and spent the night in the conference room. Many employees had their homes completely destroyed and had to seek refuge with neighbours.

Our priorities right now are safety of our employees and customers, and restoring the poles that service the backup generation for the water well fields. We are also now addressing emergency pole issues such as fires and safety hazards as they are called in by customers.

We have 150 employees and contractors already working around the clock to bring relief to customers. Today a team of 35 personnel from Tampa Electric (TE)along with 10 bucket trucks, 2 boom trucks and 2 digger trucks arrived at Port Everglades and will arrive in GB on Sunday to assist us with restoration. Based upon the damage assessment compiled by the team today, we will determine what additional resources we want to call upon from TE to support our restoration plan.

We have already confirmed over 1000 distribution and transmission poles down. Our crews are out removing poles and lines and are being hindered by the motoring public. We are asking that customers stay off the roads when possible.

Watch the Public Service Announcement HERE.


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Photo: Alfred Anderson



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