BELCO Completes Hurricane Restoration Work
[Updated] Following widespread power outages caused by two back-to-back storms — some 27,000 customers lost their power in Fay, while over 31,000 lost power in Gonzalo – BELCO confirms that they completed the hurricane restoration work last night.
A spokesperson said, “On Saturday evening, 1 November, BELCO completed Hurricane Gonzalo restoration work.
“The company has now resumed normal operation, and during the coming work week will begin work on streetlight power restoration, as well as system rehabilitation, which means replacing temporary repairs that were made to get customers lights on as quickly as possible with the required permanent repairs.
“We thank the community for their support throughout the Hurricane Gonzalo restoration process and, prior to that, the TS Fay restoration.”
Update 2.11pm: BELCO said, “After every restoration, we find that there are some customers whose outages have gone undetected, and today with the unsettled weather, new, isolated outages could occur, and some damaged equipment may be impacted by high winds.
“BELCO’s system enables Dispatch Operators and Control to see outages down to the branch line, but the only way for BELCO to know about outages at individual residences or buildings is for people to phone in. To report outages, partial power or downed lines, poles or other equipment, please call 955 to log this in BELCO’s Outage Management System.”
3 weeks to the day for some people!
Not acceptable. Replace the rotten poles so this does not happen again!
While they’re replacing rotten poles, you can go cut all the trees tangled up in the wires.
Property owners are responsible for cutting their own trees and bushes, I believe.
BELCO provides a back up service for those areas where the residents cannot do this and are NOT resposible for all the trees on the island that may iminge on the wires.
Let’s be realistic, everyone is resposible in some way or another, or all our BELCO bills will skyrocket.
The same applies to bushes and trees overhanging the road – it is the property owners’ responsibility to cut them back neatly.
The days of BELCO or government making up for lazy property owners has long gone. We cannot afford it any longer. Many people want government to spend less, or BELCO base charges to be less, well here is one way you can assist. If you are not a property owner, then help your landlord or family, clear the road outside your home or help trim trees and bushes and do the same for any elderly or disabled people on your street.
James,
You have to realize that these workers are not robots, as some would expect them to be so they can be comfortable (sounds selfish to me). Yes, if they worked 24 hours per day, the time would have been reduced to restore power to all. However, these individuals need to refuel as their health is a priority, if not that would open another can of worms. I believe Belco had a tools / man down policy at 10pm.
Thanks much Belco! As a service provider there will always be a small group who will open the hole in their mouth in a negative way.
Also, to homeowners, do your part by maintaining your trees. Trees fell over and took power lines with them.
On behalf of the people of Bermuda, thanks BELCO for all your hard work and continued support of our critical infrastructure!
James: you are an @$$**** just saying.
I must ask you…why is he an a**? What he says is true. It is unacceptable!I don’t even understand why his comment got so many dislikes. Probably from people who had power restored fairly quickly.
Not blaming the work crews because they did an excellent job But they also don’t make the decisions.
Because the poles weren’t rotten. They fell down because we had an unprecedented two hurricanes in seven days.
And the same people complaning would whine the loudest if their bill was increased by $50 a month to replace poles needlessly.
Needlessly? Or to prevent weeks of a power outage?
Since the poles were not rotten, replacing them would be needless.
The unprecedented storms caused the poles to fall over.
Mike – you’re an @$$ for making that comment. 3 weeks really is unacceptable for such a small island. And for all those people who are thanking BELCO for such good work, remember………..it’s their job. And they’re getting well paid for it.
For 95% it wasn’t three weeks or anywhere near it.
Job well done Belco….we truly appreciate the hard work you and your Carilec brothers have put in to get us back online……
Thank you thank you thank you
You know… the only people who can really judge whether it’s unacceptable or not are the people who actually made the repairs.
The rest of us, unless we have their experience, and know what had to be done, are just speaking from the perspective of people who were inconvenienced for however long.
How many of us has had a person who doesn’t know all that’s involved in our job criticise how long something has taken when we know for a fact we worked as hard and as quickly as was possible? I know I sure as heck have.
What I know is that I saw crews working… not just standing around… at all hours of the day and night. What I know is that there were Belco workers who were without power longer than I was. What I know is that they weren’t cleaning up after one storm, but two in quick succession.
What I know is that I am grateful for all the long hard work that was done.
it was clear in some areas that poles were rotten that should have long been replaced.
in the future maybe belco could invest in some generators
hell cable vision is giving their customers 25% of this months bill
belco ain’t giving sh==t
When your power is on and you can’t get C/V then that IS a problem with the provider and you should not get charged for something that you’re not receiving.
Simple , eh ?
When BELCO goes out there’s nothing coming from BELCO to your house to charge you for , so what ‘rebate’ or ‘discount’ can you expect ?
Simple , eh ?
Now, if there was a policy in place for loss of foods , etc that would be a different thing , but there is none .
Actually, Belco sent out estimated bills this month. Many people receiving them when their power was still out! My bill is higher this month than last month and I was without power for a week and I didn’t use air conditioning. I thought that I would see a difference, but I guess time will tell.
3 weeks is totally unacceptable!..the cables should have been underground years ago..
the problem is 2 fold.
DINOSAUR thinking at Belco….we all know what happened to them,
GREEDY Shareholders that dont care about you and I.
DON’T believe the lies about the cost of burying the cables.
Congrats Belco you’ve done an excellent job a lot of you have spent less quality time with your family to see that power is restored island wide. Some Bermudians will complain about everything that does not go their way. Lord help them not to complain as we are very blessed people on this island. Fellow Bermudians and all residence it could have been a lot worst. In life it’s not always that we are going to be living comfortable. But through it all i’ve learned to trust in Jesus.
some peeps dont no how much belco make profit in 1 year
different chapter let de shareholder laugh away sad but true ♫
Complaining is the same as like putting grease on the wheels.
From what I could see of the damage and downed power lines that BELCO had to repair, a substantial number were caused by overgrown trees that had been neglected by property owners. I believe BELCO crews should be highly commended for doing a superb job in getting power back to us.
It would appear that “el presidenti” is an expert on placing our power system underground. I think he should give us his own estimate of the cost of burying the whole Island’s cables with an explanation of how he reaches the figure he quotes. To suggest that power lines are not buried because of “greedy shareholders” is ludicrous! Does he seriously think that a group of BELCO shareholders are going to suddenly find over $300 million dollars out of thin air?
I am writing as a person who is not and never has been a shareholder in BELCO, and it took BELCO 5 days to restore power in our area so we had to wait our turn. Frustrating yes, but Gonzalo was the worst hurricane I’ve experienced in over 50 years and I give full marks to both the BELCO crews and the other emergency services, the Regiment and W&E for doing a great job for all of us.