Power crews from New Brunswick are still hard at work in Jamaica
Workers from Holland Power Services pose beneath an enormous tree that was downed near the Jamaican power utility headquarters in Paradise. (Submitted by Steve Hansen)
Two months after Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, recovery continues, and among those doing the work are utility contractors from New Brunswick, including Holland Power Services, based in Hanwell.
The storm made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, and many residents are still without electricity, said Steven Hansen, the Holland Power president, who returned to New Brunswick on Friday after almost a month in Jamaica.
Another 124 Holland workers are still there, about a tenth of the company’s workforce.
“We’re going to be there until the job is done,” Hansen said. “We’re committed to the Jamaican government public service for as long as they need our assistance.”
Given the extent of the damage, he estimates that will be “months to come.”
A worker from Holland subsidiary Gagnon Line Construction of Grand Falls pulls cable across Roaring River in Jamaica. (Submitted by Steve Hansen)
About 18.5 kilometres of primary power source line has been replaced so far, he said. That’s about 350 poles.
In the circuit in which Holland Power is working, about 950 poles are down.
Hurricane damage in that area, in Westmoreland Parish on the southwestern side of Jamaica, was “catastrophic,” Hansen said.
“Most windows are out of houses, doors are out of houses, roofs are torn off.”
People are still living inside damaged homes using tarps for cover, he said.
Tens of thousands in Westmoreland Parish were without clean, running water until this week, said Hansen.
Nick Gilbert of Holland’s Fredericton office stopped at Ferris Cross Primary School in Jamaica to talk to curious students. (Submitted by Steve Hansen)
During his time in Jamaica, it wasn’t uncommon to see mothers bathing children and doing laundry in the river, he said.
“You drive down the road and see the kids in the morning walking down the street with sandals and a wheel barrow and two buckets to get water at the creek.”
Hansen praised the people of Jamaica for their spirit, pride and endurance in the face of the difficult situation.
“I think their culture is probably based more around people and and less around things. And so they seem to be coping fairly well given the circumstances — but definitely very trying circumstances.”
Holland crews helped restore power to the local water treatment plant on Tuesday, Hansen said.
It serves about 70,000 people.
After a 24-hour startup process, he expected clean water to be flowing to homes by Wednesday afternoon.
“Our team is working very, very hard along with our colleagues from Jamaica,” Hansen said.
Workers from Jamaica’s electric utility, including CEO Hugh Grant, centre left, speak with a Holland worker from Ontario. (Submitted by Steve Hansen)
The workers wake up at their hotels at about 4:45 a.m., take buses to a yard for a quick breakfast, arrive at their work sites by about 6:30 a.m. and work until last light at about 6:30 p.m, he said.
Lynette Alain of Fredericton lives in Jamaica part time and recently spotted a Holland Power Services truck in Negril, a town near Jamaica’s western tip.
“We were at the grocery store and were just coming out with our shopping and I said, I’ve got to go over and talk to them because I knew that they were from Canada.”
She was delighted to find that she and the electrical worker were both from Fredericton.
Many foreign workers have come to assist the rebuild, she said.
“We just thank them so much and told them to let their crew know how thankful we were for their help, and we couldn’t do it without them. There’s no way that we’d be able to repair as a country without outside help, for sure.”
Holland workers pick up a boxed breakfast and supper from this field kitchen at the start and end of each work day, said Hansen. Lunch is delivered to their job sites. (Submitted by Steve Hansen)
Holland Power has contracts with about 50 utilities across the United States and in the Caribbean and belongs to mutual assistance groups as well.
“When large-scale storm events happen, no one company can can take care of things on their own,” Hansen said. “Just the scale of damage … it precludes any one entity being able to solve these crises.”
Interactions like that one with Alain, the Fredericton woman, are common, Hansen said.
“The number of people that come by the job sites and give you a fist bump or a handshake and just say, thank you — it warms your heart.”
The work is also its own reward, he said.
“You know you’re doing good things for good people.”
