And while the prospect of flooding is on the event horizon, there are far more pressing matters at had tonight. Like for example, the largest population center in the country is under a blackout! That's right, though 7News and various media outlets are coming to you live from the city tonight - we are operating on generators because BEL has not restored power to the city. That's a 24 hour outage and counting - which raises all kinds of concerns about security, and just general life issues: like how does the largest population center in the country go for a day and a half without power. Today, BEL's CEO Jeffery Locke told the media why:,,,
Jeffrey Locke, CEO - BEL
"For the most part the only two districts that were able to stay online were Corozal and Orange Walk. All other areas were affected. The good news is that we've been able to restore to Toledo, most of Dangriga, San Ignacio, Benque, Belmopan. The bad news is the areas most hit by the hurricane, Belize District and San Pedro and Caye Caulker - we have some work to do. Restoration is going on. Similarly we are doing assessment at the same time. Priority areas for us are the hospital KHMH feeder that supply them. We intend to restore power to that feeder this evening, downtown Belize City - we also intend to restore power this evening, no matter how late we go into the night. We are hoping that most areas, i would say probably about 80-85% restoration should take place by midday tomorrow."
Later on you'll hear about how police are coping with this security wise - and how the super extended outages could end up compromising BTL's phone service.
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