| Epic Blackouts Blight Punta Gorda |
| Mon, July 18, 2011 |
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| Residents of Punta Gorda suffered with a cruel series of blackouts this weekend. It started on Saturday morning just after 11:e0 am, when blackout fell over all of Punta Gorda Town and surrounding areas - which include 11 villages.
BEL crews from Dangriga and Independence were dispatched to join the Punta Gorda crews and identified the cause of the problem as multiple lightning-damaged insulators along 14 miles of distribution lines which run from the substation located near the Dump area to Punta Gorda Town.
According to a BEL release, work crews had to climb approximately 75 utility poles to identify and repair the damaged equipment. Power was not restored until after 11 on Saturday night - a 12 hour outage.
And then last night into this morning there was another 6 hour outage because a tree fell on a main line.
It's the culmination of two weeks of extended outages in PG town. BEL promises that a new power line is already in place and will be commissioned over the next month - which should improve service and reliability.
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