Freeport, Bahamas - On Sunday, October 9th,
Tampa Electric team members have safely arrived to Grand Bahama Island via Balearia Caribbean to assist Grand Bahama Power Co.
GB Power Statement made at 12 noon on Saturday, October 8th: A team of 35 personnel from Tampa Electric along with 10 bucket trucks, 2 boom trucks and 2 digger trucks are at Port Everglades and will arrive in Grand Bahama on Sunday to assist Grand Bahama Power with restoration.
Our crews worked through the night and were able to restore well field one with power allowing for running water to be restored to parts of the island. We are working feverishly to have the entire island restored with running water by Sunday.
Know that our employees are working tirelessly, and we are doing the best we can to assess the damage to our and begin restoration efforts.
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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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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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"We promised to bring assistance to help restore power to the island of Grand Bahama and we are well on our way. Tampa Electric team members have safely arrived and are ready to begin work!" said Grand Bahama Power on their Facebook page.
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