And across Belize, tens of thousands are tonight still without electricity - including our studio here on Albert Street. And for Belize City residents, it's been about 30 hours without power, since it went early yesterday afternoon.
And for some, it might not come back for a few more days. Today, the Corporate Communications Manager at BEL, Vonetta Burrell, explained that they've been working to restore power supply since the storm subsided, and they're expecting that most homes will be restored by the end of tomorrow.
But as you've seen in our previous stories, Lisa left lampposts leaning dangerously - some on the edge of people's roofs. Wires were tangled with zinc sheets, debris, and even trees. So just how much damage did the hurricane cause?
Here's what Burrell told us over Zoom this afternoon.
Vonetta Burrell, Manager, Corporate Comm. Dept., BEL
"As of this afternoon, we have restored service to approximately 40% of customers who were severely affected by the damages sustained from Hurricane Lisa. Most of these damages to the power system occurred in the Belize and Cayo District which account for 60% of our entire customer base. So, of all the customers at BEL throughout the country, 60% of them are in the areas that were most affected which were the Cayo District and Belize District. As of this afternoon, 40% of them have been restored with service. Our work continues, our assessment continues, and we have extensive damages throughout the Belize District primarily and there were some damages that were sustained in the Cayo District. At this point we also want to advise customers that we may be experiencing some localized outages in the areas where there is extensive damage to personal property. Your neighborhood might have power, but you may not be able to get reconnected because there are necessary repairs that are needed to your service entrance and that requires the assistance of a certified electrician. So, we have customers who have sustained damages to their property, particularly service entrance damage, to please get a certified electrician to assist with making those repairs."
Reporter
"Do you have maybe an estimate or figure of how many people, residents are without electricity right now?"
Vonetta Burrell, Manager, Corporate Comm. Dept., BEL
"Well, I can tell you from the customer base perspective, I can't give you the numbers right now but maybe you can do the calculation. We have 107,000 accounts country-wide and 60% of those accounts are within the Cayo District and Belize District. Of those, 40% of them are restored at this point and our teams are working towards the aim of making sure that we have 80% of the remaining customers restored by the end of tomorrow. Unfortunately, there are others that will remain out past tomorrow, but that should be 20% or less of those remaining customers."
Reporter
"What was the most extreme damage that you guys witnessed and where was it? What area did you find the most damage?"
Vonetta Burrell, Manager, Corporate Comm. Dept., BEL
"Well, that is a relative question, while we have damages to our system, we know that the value of people's properties vary. We are happy to know though that at least up until now there is no report of loss of life and so, we wouldn't want to compare damages, we just want to assure customers that we are focused on restoring power. Our teams are taking reports, they are making a record of all the locations and if you can submit the pole number or the general area where you are seeing damages, if you can send in a picture, we are accepting reports through all our channels."
BEL can be contacted at 0-800-235-2273, or on their Facebook page, or their mobile app.
