To mark the 5-year anniversary of the passing of Hurricane Irma, representatives of two of the territory’s most vital and most impacted utilities reflected on the progress that has been made on the winding road to recovery.
Director of the Water and Sewerage Department Perline Scatliffe Leonard and General Manager of the BVI Electricity Corporation Leroy Abraham were featured in the government’s “An Irma Reflection” programme.
They spoke on the devastations particular to each of their respective utilities as a result of Hurricane Irma, noting that the recovery period has been fruitful.
When asked what they believe to be their utility’s greatest achievement during the recovery period, Scatliffe Leonard said that in the case of the Water and Sewerage Department, it was the ability to emerge from the devastation stronger and better equipped to serve than ever before.
“Apart from restoring water services to many of our customers, we were able to convince bodies that we need to change out our water tanks at the Long Bush, Carrot Bay and Zion Hill areas. So now at this point we are fully territory wide… which is a big accomplishment for the BVI. We also at this time, because you know at the time the storm took out all our systems with our billing for our customers and so forth, with that we were able to push a bit deeper and convince the authorities that we needed to get our billing system online where we would be able to, right away, at some point come up quickly”, she explained.
“If something was to happen again, I think we are pretty much in good stead to deal with that situation”, Scatliffe Leonard added.
Proudest moment was returning electricity to connection-ready customers in 6 months
As for the BVI Electricity Corporation, Abraham said that most remarkable was the ability of his teams to restore power to all connection-ready customers within 6 months of a complete wipe-out of their existing systems.
“The proudest thing is the fact that we were able to reinstate or reconnect everyone who was “connectable” within a 6-month period of time. To some persons that may not sound significant but the utility practically started from zero, when you put things into context”, he said.
Abraham also noted that at the time, the BVI was not the only country in the region facing great infrastructural damage as a result of the passage of Hurricane Irma, and as a result, was made to accomplish this feat in a very competitive environment and with very limited resources.
“Painting a picture with the limited resources that we had, limited assistance. All be it that we got quite a bit of assistance from our regional sister utilities… we also got assistance from some Canadian lineman that was engaged by the UK Government… When you look at these numbers compared to the numbers you were having right next door, it wasn’t even a scratch in terms of the volume of resources that was in the USVI dealing with recovery”, he said.
Abraham said that an estimated 13,000 customers across 12 islands served by BVIEC were restored during that period alone, a figure which has steadily grown over the years as homes were rebuilt.
Both Utility heads are confident that the lessons from Irma have better prepared them to respond to future incidents and have ultimately set a new standard for Hurricane Preparedness in the British Virgin Islands.