Business lobby groups are currently assessing the impact of Hurricane Beryl, which passed over the island on Wednesday but left a trail of devastating damage and service disruptions.
Homes and businesses affected by the powerful Category 4 storm on Thursday have begun estimating the potential damage and the extent of the impact, if any.
The Jamaica Bankers Association (JBA), the umbrella body for commercial banks, said in a notice on Thursday that the majority of the country’s financial institutions are working to fully restore banking services to the public.
“Our member institutions will continue to share updates with customers regarding service availability over the next 24 hours. Please check your bank’s social media pages, websites and traditional media services for the latest information,” the notice said.
Similarly, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) president Mettrie Seaga told the Jamaica Observer that the organisation’s more than 350 members are currently busy conducting individual assessments to determine how best to resume normal operations.
“We are thankful the storm did not come as expected. Most businesses are prepared and factories and essential services appear to be reopening between today (Thursday) and Friday, which should get the country back on track. I have been out driving around and from what I have seen Kingston and St Andrew are in relatively good shape. We are still gathering information from members in other parishes such as Clarendon, Portland and others, but we are hopeful that by today most businesses will have reopened and especially bus services will have resumed so that everyone can get back to work,” he said.
Sidney Thwaites, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), echoed similar sentiments, saying preliminary assessments indicated immediate damage, but the most immediate challenge for manufacturers and exporters was the loss of power.
“Most of the manufacturers I have been able to speak to at the time of this interview have made it through with minimal damage. Having power restored from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) immediately is probably the most urgent need for the industry. We are also hopeful that port services will be restored so that logistics and trade activities can resume. As for employees, we are hopeful that the resumption of transport services by agencies and the resolution of other personal issues will allow more employees to return to work as soon as possible,” Thwaites said. JMEA has about 500 members.
Initial reports from JPS on Thursday said about 60% of its customers were without power as a result of the hurricane.
In a follow-up update, JPS director of corporate communications, Winsome Karam, told Business Week that the company is assessing damage to the power grid across the island and is restoring power to the majority of Jamaicans where it can be safely served.
“The damage assessment will give us an accurate picture of what is happening on the ground and at each line. This assessment will give us a better idea of when we will be able to restore power, as restoration may take longer depending on the extent of the damage. We will continue to work to restore power to as many customers as possible as quickly as possible,” she said.
She said power needed to be restored to areas providing essential services across the country and that these were being treated as a priority.
“We have started restoration work in the Corporate Area but our prioritization approach is to first restore services to critical services across the island, not just the Corporate Area. So our focus is on restoring power to hospitals, airports and telecommunications services. After these, business and commercial districts are also in the priority group. We are currently working to restore power to these areas as quickly as possible as we understand how important it is to keep businesses running but unfortunately I cannot provide details on the exact timeline at this time,” Karam explained.
The hospitality industry is also taking steps to determine the hurricane’s impact on hotels and other tourism-related businesses.
While BusinessWeek was unable to get a full picture of the situation from Robin Russell, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), who told BusinessWeek they were investigating, Vana Taylor, regional chair for St. Ann, St. Mary and Portland parishes, said what stood out was the power outage.
“The biggest challenge on our side is getting power back on. Most of the major hotels and much larger hotels have backup power systems but they’ve been running on those for a while and I think they’ll need additional connections from the grid soon,” she said.
