Residents of Majesty Gardens, St Andrew, are served by Flow’s Store on Wheels. (Photo provided)
Jamaica — Flow Jamaica has restored home internet and cable services to 1,216 communities affected during the passage of Hurricane Beryl last Wednesday.
This figure is up from 413 on Saturday, July 6, and indicates that 58 percent of affected communities have been restored.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, more than 2,000 communities lost fixed services (internet, cable, voice) for residential and business customers, primarily due to power outages.
Flo said 70 percent of the remaining outages will be restored once commercial power is restored to the affected areas.
The main parishes affected are St Elizabeth, Clarendon, Manchester, Westmoreland, St James, Kingston and St Andrew.
The company also noted that a total of 162 affected mobile sites have been restored, bringing its mobile population coverage rate to 81 percent.
But Frow said theft and vandalism in parts of the island was hampering recovery efforts, noting that 50 generators had been destroyed and three stolen across Jamaica before the hurricane.
According to the company, since the hurricane there have been a number of fuel thefts, mainly in St. Ann and St. Mary parishes, a water tank was stolen from a Flow retail store in Savanna-Lamar, Westmoreland, and an entire switchboard was stolen from a fixed network (voice, internet and TV) facility in West Cumberland, St. Catherine.
Meanwhile, Flow said its Mobile Store on Wheels continues to provide device charging, sales, top-ups, credit distribution and other humanitarian services to customers in some communities.
So far the team has visited the communities of Majesty Gardens, Denham Town, Seaview Gardens, St Andrew, Mitchell Town and Portland Cottage in Clarendon, Flanker in St James, Mandeville and St Elizabeth. The mobile store will remain in St Elizabeth for one week from July 8 to 12.
The company said restoration efforts would continue on July 9 and 10 in the areas of Trelawny, St. Mary, Portland, Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portmore and St. Catherine.
