West Bay faces day long power cut in wake of crash
Scene of crash in West Bay, 8 November 2016
(CNS): UPDATED 6pm – CUC restored power to most of West Bay by around 4pm Tuesday. A major single-vehicle smash in the early hours of the morning not far from Cemetary Beach destroyed at least one CUC pole. The collision caused a major power outage in the area, as the power provider worked to repair and replace equipment damaged in the smash, and West Bay residents faced a diversion and traffic congestion Tuesday morning. Police said the driver who appeared to be travelling at considerable speed before the smash was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
CUC cut power from around 11am and although officials had reported the supply could be out for as much as eight hours as the lightpole was replaced and other work one on the power lines the electricity was back earlier than expected for most customers. Most West Bay customers north of the West Bay fire Station were without electricity however for several hours.
The Department of Education Services had also announced that Sir John A. Cumber Primary School (SJACPS), was affected by the power outage, but it remained open for the school day.
Category: Local News
Cayman must hold the world record for light/power poles demolished in one car vehicle accidents, this must run into the many hundreds over the last several decades. What does this tell us about the local standards of driving?.
Don’t blame CUC, the company should charge these idiots for the cost of replacement which must be considerable.
We’re not blaming CUC for knocking down the pole, we’re blaming them for being inept and ill equipped to efficiently deal with the situation and get the power back on quickly just as electricity suppliers elsewhere in the world do. We also blame the directors for creaming off the profits and charging us ridiculously high bills for an antiquated system.
We should be seeing how inefficient that CUC is in repairing damages.
Just one pole that was damaged took about 5 to 6 hours to restore power . Think about a real disaster, and people should be demanding better today .
Oh for Christ’s sake, shut up! Can you people even open your mouths without passing judgment on someone or something? Do you have any idea what it takes to repair a damaged power pole? Apparently you do since you think CUC was too slow. Perhaps you could have done a better job and should go to work there. “People should be demanding better.” Ungrateful idiot. This post had NOTHING to do with the inefficiency or otherwise of CUC workers…but give them an opportunity, ANY opportunity and some people will use it as a sounding board to complain about something, ANYTHING. Life’s short, too bad you’re so unhappy.
You’re so behind the times the poster is right CUC should be able to do better.
Kudos to CUC. Around 9:00am it sent out text messages on both Digicel and Flow networks warning of the impending power cut. This is as best as it could do for such an event. Clearly an unplanned outage but they were able to warn the community. I appreciate when there are some unexpected cuts for which CUC itself has no prior warning and cannot forewarn. Also, they worked diligently and brought power back a few hours before their stated deadline.
I don’t mind paying for that kind of customer service.
FLOW/LIME should learn from CUC!!
CNS – Please verify that assertion by the Department of Education that Sir John A Cumber Primary “remained open for the day”. I saw quite a few JACP school children with their parents at Foster’s Republix before lunchtime and I was told that school had closed for the day because there is no generator.
That is a shame. It means that every time there is a power cut during the school day, our children’s education process has to come to a halt!!?? Isn’t JCAP a designated hurricane shelter and shouldn’t it have a generator?
CNS: That came from a government press release.
The Ministry issued a press release saying that school would remain open but if parents wanted they could come and collect their children. This seems to have been a good move because many parents took the opportunity to go get their children. All schools that are used as hurricane shelters have generators and my understanding is that the school activated theirs and had a lot of the children in the hall. Bear in mind the entire school would not be a hurricane shelter, only the hall. You also need to understand that there is a vast difference in cost and set up for a generator that runs an entire complex (which is what a school is) and one that runs 1 building in that complex. I would like to thank the school and the Ministry for giving parents the option and also for calling parents to ensure that we knew what was happening. Parents are grateful.
While I do pray that the driver makes a full recovery, it just goes to show (that once again) the actions of one individual can have an impact on so many people. One person’s choice to ignore the traffic laws affected over 6000 people in the district for virtually a full day. We can and we must do better on our roads.
We have a huge problem with the bottle in Cayman and nobody wants to address the elephant in the room….
Most “accidents” on this island are due to persons being under the influence of alcohol. We can’t ignore this anymore.
Should,the driver be prosecuted for any offences I assume CUC will be applying for compensation in respect of the loss of revenue and costs in carrying out the repairs or IF and probably a big IF the driver was insured claim from the insurance company. But then this is Cayman so probably they didn’t think of that.
Segway: Traffic & bad drivers will soon be made easier with the new automatic licence-plate readers coming soon, there will be no need for police to do road-stops for expired tags or chase speeders.
The Traffic Bills will then come strait in to your PO Box. Candid photo and all.
Automatic license plate recognition doesn’t work so well when a) you don’t have plates!b) they are covered with dark tinted perspex.
Why all the fuss about 1 day without Electricity; should be more concerned about what caused it.
It look a weak excuse from CUC to say no power in west bay all day……there is underwater cable so whole island is in a loop system. I know where is underwater cable from west bay to red bay also from west bay to rum point. So what the story is?
FYI the underwater cable is from George Town Yacht Club to west bay and George Town Yacht Club. The one to west bay is out because of upgrades at the substation and could not be used.
* George Town Yacht Club to rum point
OK So we don’t need power poles anymore then, right? According to you. Shut up. Idiot.
Only in Cayman do you end up with no power for a whole day when a pole is damaged. That alone says a lot about the inadequacy of the service, let alone all the general power outages throughout the rest of the year.
SJACPS told all parents this morning to come pick up their child immediately as the power would be out….
Will anyone notice the difference?
What an absolutely stupid remark, 1.19pm. Go back to kindergarten where you belong.
Not so stupid 2.47, pretty bang on for most Bayers…obviously you are wounded by the truth..you will get over it.
Power cut to West Bay means Mac no longer in power…right…?
One has eternal hope 3.42, however the Trump episode reveals all is not well with the world in general.
Not anyone’s fault for the closures and glad the driver survived. Those telephone poles seem to be a magnet for cars…
No man. I tired of expecting power outages!!!!!! Only in Cayman you can pay your electricity bill and STILL GET YOUR POWER CUT OFF!!!!!!!
Really?, if you don’t have power to your home because its been turned off your meter has stopped therefore you are not using electricity, and i am quite sure CUC was not expecting a car to crash in to one of the main distribution poles causing then to have to shut power down to a whole district and therefore not being able to sell electricity for as quoted “8 hours” , use your head.
“Nobody expects the Spanish Car Crash”
You idiot. No one cut the power Einstein…A CAR WRECK HAPPENED. The car nor the driver cared whether you paid your bill or not. I’m sure the pole wasn’t happy either. Blame the pole for being there and getting hit and cutting off your electricity. Blame the driver. Or better yet, be quiet. Be very, very quiet.
Don’t CUC have a submarine cable feeding across into the Papagallo area?
I may be wrong, but I thought they had this in place.
Anyone care to comment?
I care to comment. Hope you’re happy now.
Thank you. thank you for commenting. My day has been made and my life is now complete. I am not only happy, I am orgasmic, Thank you, kind a**hole!