Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has reaffirmed its commitment to restoring electricity to the majority of households impacted by Hurricane Melissa before Christmas, despite confronting severe infrastructural damage and logistical hurdles. Corporate Communications Director Winsome Callum confirmed the utility provider remains on schedule to energize most communities across multiple parishes by the holiday, with fewer than 50 customers expected to remain off-grid in regions including St. Catherine, Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Ann, St. Thomas, St. Mary, and Portland due to accessibility constraints.
Parish-specific restoration targets reveal a varied landscape of progress. Clarendon has already achieved its 95% power restoration goal, while Manchester is projected to meet a similar benchmark. St. Ann and Trelawny are targeted for 80% and 75% restoration rates respectively by Christmas Day. However, the western parishes of St. James, Hanover, St. Elizabeth, and Westmoreland—which sustained catastrophic damage—require specialized recovery strategies focused on commercial centers and critical services rather than percentage-based targets.
Notable restoration milestones have been reached in key economic zones including St. James’s Elegant Corridor, Hanover’s Lucea Town and Sandy Bay areas, St. Elizabeth’s Black River Hospital and Treasure Beach locations, and Westmoreland’s West End Negril and Savanna-la-Mar districts. Despite these achievements, outage rates remain critically high in the most affected regions: Westmoreland (88% without power), St. Elizabeth (50%), St. James (43%), Trelawny (39%), and Hanover (36%).
The restoration effort faces multifaceted challenges including extensive damage to transmission infrastructure surpassing typical pole and line repairs, with substations and high-tension towers requiring complete reconstruction. Terrain accessibility issues force crews to employ manual labor techniques in waterlogged areas where heavy equipment becomes immobilized. Compounding these difficulties are incidents of wire theft and vandalism that deliberately undermine progress, alongside recurring outages caused by motor vehicle accidents damaging recently repaired infrastructure.
To accelerate recovery, JPS is deploying over 200 international line workers who will work throughout the holiday period. This reinforcement aims to achieve 90% island-wide restoration by January 15th, prioritizing both speed and safety in returning electricity to affected communities.