Locals, still recovering from Hurricane Wilma, felt a sense of deja’ vu when the lights started going out throughout the various communities at about midnight Thursday.
A labour dispute in Nassau – centred on an employee’s vacation – had spread to Abaco.
Fishermen in Crown Haven, where power was only recently restored after Wilma, face a potentially crippling loss of income due to lobster spoilage.
In Marsh Harbour, and Green Turtle and Man-o-War Cays, locals and visitors staying in vacation rentals had no lights and – in many cases – no water.
Businesses with electronic switchboards lost communications as well as power, while the larger hotels and foodstores had to switch to generators.
BEC supervisors scrambled to fill the posts vacated by linesmen but, were unable to keep power flowing.
“This is a cry for help. It’s a serious situation,” Denise Kelly of Abaco Air said.
“We are still recovering from Hurricane Wilma and this is the last thing Abaco needs. “These are good guys who really work hard in all weather conditions to keep the power going, but they’re just sitting in. The powers that be really need to do whatever they can to resolve this situation,” she, said.
Economy
Said another businessperson: “This is sending really bad signals to the tourists: It’s crippling the economy.”
The first signs of unrest appeared Thursday when BEC collection agents refused to accept phone bill payments.
An airport employee, who tried to pay a bill, was turned away. “They said, `Honey, we don’t want your money today,” the employee reported.
A woman was shopping in Solomon’s foodstore in Marsh Harbour Friday morning when it went pitch black.
“It was kind of scary back there before the generator kicked in,” she said.
And although the Abaco Regatta was cancelled this weekend because of Wilma; the regatta parties – solid revenue earners – were still to take place. Organisers were in the dark as to what to do – cancel or wait it out in the hope that power would be restored.
While a growing number of people have invested in small stand-by generators as a result of the recent active hurricane seasons, many more – are without that luxury and have returned to a bygone era of kerosene lamps.
“It’s like a yo-yo. Different places are going off at different times,” a resident of Man-O-War Cay said of the power outages.
BEC’s power station and emergency phones rang unanswered as frustrated residents telephoned for information.
“People are upset,” a Green Turtle Cay resident said. “The two main resorts here have generators and a handful of second home owners. But only about five or six locals have generators and the tourist rentals don’t have any.”
BEC workers in Nassau walked off the job Tuesday to press for the removal of an information technology manager.
Workers claimed the manager refused to allow an employee to take vacation leave after he complained of feeling ill. The employee subsequently “fell out” on the job.
Pay stations in Nassau closed for several hours Tuesday as a result of the dispute and customers were turned away.
Bahamas Electrical Workers Union president Dennis Williams was quoted as saying: “The union cannot be bullied or pushed into a corner by any person or group of persons and BEC must understand clearly that workers will not be disrespected.”
Source: οΎ The Tribune, Nassau Bahamas
