771 Flow Sites Fully Operational

Vice President and General Manager for Flow Jamaica, Stephen Price, says that 771 of 778 Flow sites island-wide are up and fully operational, as the company stands at high alert ahead of the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Mr. Price, who was speaking during a joint utility media briefing on Sunday (Oct. 25) at the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), Head Office on New Kingston, said that all priority-one sites, which serve the most densely populated areas, are up to 100 per cent operational.

“We have initiated our emergency management response and incident response capabilities right across the island. Our people are staged right across the length and breadth of the country at our key facility sites,” he reported.

“We are supported by our regional crisis management team out of Liberty Caribbean… who are shadowing our local crisis management team, so that we have the level of support that’s necessary,” he said, noting that about eight Cells on Wheels (COWs) have been brought into the country to enable emergency response if towers fail.

Meanwhile, Mr. Price said that the safety and well-being of the Flow staff are of the highest priority.

“I really want to commend my technicians and my technical teams who, even as the storm gathers, are still out in the field. We will, by later in the day, pull them out of the field. Given the storm’s intensity, we are really monitoring its projected path and we know all of the infrastructure that is in the current path that we believe will be battered throughout the period,” he said.

Hurricane Melissa is a Category 4 system that is currently south of Jamaica, with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.

The hurricane is moving slowly westward and is expected to move closer to and over Jamaica between Monday night and Tuesday morning, bringing heavy rains, strong winds and flooding.