So what's it really been like for island residents and guests? We asked the mayor, Wally Nunez an hour ago:

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro
"It has been quite stressful for the resorts and the tourists that have been complaining. Nonetheless, our workforce here on the island took an extra day off, so to speak, when it comes to Labour Day, because a lot of places had to close down, because they couldn't continue operating. The system is down, there is no internet."

Jules Vasquez
"So overall Mayor, there is a lot of misery on San Pedro this evening, going into night it will be a dark and hot night."

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro
"Well, only up to midnight hopefully and we have a lot of people outside, people on the beach, people trying to catch a cool breeze, because inside is hot."

Jules Vasquez
"Is there anger directed towards the utility? because San Pedro has been on the edge. From Easter we are hearing San Pedro is running at max, right and it's like you all are being penalize for your prosperity."

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro
"Right, the good thing I ask BEL that same question today if we will be having more and more of these power outages, because it is affecting our tourism here and thankfully, they say once they fix this transformer today, we shouldn't be experiencing any more."

So, what caused the outage? BEL says there was, quote, "a critical failure of a major component of the single transformer at our Maskall Substation in the Belize District."

And tonight, to get power back up, BEL is moving a mobile substation transformer from the Westlake Substation at Mile 8 on the George Price Highway to the Maskall Substation.

It's a big unit and the wide load transportation started this evening from the George Price Highway to Maskall village on the Old Northern Highway.