Following the weekend’s island-wide blackout, some business owners are still upset about the damage it has caused and they are now counting their losses.
The disruption in electricity supplies throughout New Providence and Paradise Island affected businesses such as convenience stores, fast food restaurants, resorts and hotels.
Even though the electricity was restored on Sunday, some members of the business community are still a frustrated with the millions of dollars lost as a result of the power outage.
An employee at Jimmy’s Fast Food Restaurant said her company was gravely affected by the blackout for two entire days.
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Bahamas Electrical Corporation (BEC) “has got to stop”.
“The power outage made absolutely no sense,” she said.
“It cost the company so much money and with no electricity, our work was hot the entire time. Could you imagine being here with hardly any windows sweating at six in the morning? They need to do better, seriously. It cost us so much money because all of our food in the fridge got spoiled and we had to throw it away. We even had to serve our customers outside.”
Now on the other hand, employees of several other businesses claimed that the blackout was not entirely controlled by BEC.
Philippa McKenzie, front desk supervisor at the Grand Central Hotel, said although the company was affected, she and her colleagues completely understood.
“Just like everyone else, we didn’t have any water or light,” said Ms. McKenzie.
“We had a few customers who checked out and felt the need to seek to stay at other places to have electricity and current. In regards to business, there was a loss that was suffered but we also understand that these things happen especially when it’s a big island-wide issue.”
Electricity was restored at both companies on Sunday and they didn’t report any power outages since.
BEC confirmed that electricity supplies were restored to 100 per cent of its customers on Sunday afternoon.
Although there is still no definite figure as to the overall cost the blackout has caused, it is presumed that businesses affected have suffered millions of dollars in loss.
