Still in darkness
79-year-old laments hardships of getting electricity restored
FOR 79-year-old Marigold Nembhard, it has been more than two weeks without electricity, and the damaging effects of Hurricane Beryl to her private utility wires and poles in Nembhard Town, south St Elizabeth, as well as her crops have made it even more difficult for her to return to normalcy.
She explained that unlike most Jamaicans, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) is not responsible for restoration of fallen utility poles or wires in her area of the community. Instead, she said it is the residents who have to bear the cost.
“We down inna the lane here so, we nuh get back light yet…but those people going right down have current,” she said, pointing to a group of houses behind her.
“We have to pay to put it on because it’s private. JPS nuh business with the lines down here. My meter is on the concrete post up at the main road and is our responsibility, if nothing happen to the pole them, to fix them,” she told the Jamaica Observer.
However, she said finding an electrician to reconnect the wires and help her put up the light post is a difficult task.
“Mi dig out the hole for the post and one electrician fi come put it back in. He was supposed to come back last week Wednesday evening to look at it, but because of the rain he didn’t,” she said, adding that weather conditions after the passage of Beryl delayed restoration efforts.
But even if she is able to get an electrician, she said she is not sure if she will be able to afford the cost to string back the wires.
“Mi nuh know how much them ago charge wi, because mi hear say one electrician a charge $40,000, but mi cyaah pay that; that’s why mi nuh get him to come, because that’s too expensive,” she said.
The 79-year-old told the Sunday Observer that together with her brother and son, they farm lettuce and other crops for a living, but in their front yard, heads of lettuce still planted were showing signs of wilting, with others struggling to survive.
She said she was devastated when she woke up the morning after the storm to see what happened to her crops, and now she is not sure how she will recover and get the money to pay for her electricity to get reconnected and bounce back from the storm.
To make matters worse, Nembhard said that a section of her roof blew off during the hurricane, which she recently had to fix.
“During the storm I wasn’t worried about the crop as much as I was worried about the housetop, because I heard the zinc starting to lift,” she said.
“I went down on my knees when I heard it start lifting. A part of it only lift, and the water came into the front room, wet up the bed,” she shared.
Nembhard said she was happy the entire roof did not lift off, because the price to repair the roof, utility pole, and salvage the damaged crops would be too great.
Still in darkness, she said she is hoping to find a reasonable electrician to connect her wires so she can have electricity.
“Last night I hardly sleep because me wah back the current,” she said, lamenting the hardships of using a flashlight and lamp to see in the night.
The 79-year-old said she was also forced to either give or throw away all of the frozen meats and food in her fridge, and now she has to take a 10-15 minute walk when she wants to cook.
“If mi do get meat, I carry it down to one shop down there suh go beg them keep it cause them have generator, so mi ask them to put it down for me till mi ready for it mi take it the same day mi ago use it,” she explained.
“Gilbert [1988], Ivan [2004], and Dean [2007] was nothing compared to this, all three of them put together, Beryl beat them. Is not one housetop blow off. You guys go to Tryall and them place there? And Lovers Leap? I never go, but I hear people talking about it. I wouldn’t like to experience nothing like Beryl again,” she said.