Trinidad and Tobago: Electricity commission receives honour for relief work in Carriacou    

Trinidad and Tobago: Members of the electricity commission were awarded certificates of honour for their relief work in Carriacou following Hurricane Beryl. The team received this honour when they arrived home after a whole month.

Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales, presented the certificates during a ceremony at his office in Port of Spain. During the event, Marvin Gonzales praised the team, noting that their work was invaluable to the people of Carriacou.

“They got the payment and the incurred overtime, but when you look at the nature of the work that was done, I don’t believe you can pay these men for the work that they have done on that island, restoring electricity in record time,” Gonzales said.

Curvis Francois, the General Manager of Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission, also attended the event and described the team’s efforts as a sense of pride.

He further highlighted the speedy recovery by the team while stating, “Four weeks later, 90 percent of the electrical grid was repowered. Over 600 customers were back on supply, where there were none initially. This was the achievement you made in just a short time. You did it.”

Team supervisor Chabindranad Jagdeo stated that the island was severely damaged when they arrived. He added that, while it wasn’t his first time at a hurricane-damaged site, the destruction in Carriacou was particularly dreadful.

“When we went to Carriacou, the place felt like heat took over. Everything was brown looking like fire is the reason for the damage,” he said.

Notably, the island nations of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were the most affected by Hurricane Beryl, destroying almost every facility and leaving the nation with extensive damage.

In order to overcome the damage caused to the electricity and power supply, the relief team went to the island nation on 28^th July.

The team was deployed to the north region of the island nation and were addressed to do the major reconstruction work including installing and straightening poles, installing transformers, and tensioning conductors.

During their stay, the team was accommodated in government housing apartments repurposed as a base for the workers. Grenada also loaded all the necessary tools and equipment for the work to be done prior to the crew’s arrival.

Local communities across the island nation applauded the swift work done by the team. The rapid power restoration brought life back to normal, allowing essential facilities such as schools and hospitals to reopen.