Mandeville mayor accuses JPS of not being prepared for hurricane

 

Chairman of the Manchester Municipal Corporation and Mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell has accused the Jamaica Public Service Company of not being prepared for Hurricane Beryl which caused significant disruption across several parishes.

 

Manchester was one of three southern parishes hardest hit by the category four storm, which upended and broke poles and damaged power lines.

 

Several communities in the parish remain without power.

 

Addressing the monthly meeting of the municipal corporation, Mr. Mitchell said it cannot be business as usual, as he chastised JPS for not being proactive in responding to complaints prior to the hurricane. 

 

"I don't understand how [JPS] could be asking us to launch complaint when there is no light now and there is no internet nor nothing to lodge a complaint. And I thought that the reason why we had put this group together of councillors with the Jamaica Public Service Company, was so that we could be able to transmit to them in real time the problems that we are encountering in the divisions." 

 

"I don't think they were prepared for this hurricane. They were never prepared because some of the things we pointed out to them in terms of trees entangling in wire and trees near wire and all of that, if for that time they were doing it, we wouldn't have all this problem," he complained. 

 

Mr. Mitchell is in support of the government assisting citizens with installing solar panels at their primary residence. 

 

"What I want to recommend to the government is to find some funds

to give families and people some grants and things to buy some solar panels and something and go solar because we are in a tropical climate, and we have sun the day after the hurricane. A lot of persons have been using solar. We cannot rely on JPS because they are failures," the mayor declared. 

 

Last week, the House of Representatives approved amendments to the Income Tax Act, to provide incentives to Jamaicans who install renewable energy solutions at home.