Elsa which passed to the south of Barbados and packing winds of over 70 miles an hour, also knocked over houses, fell trees and disrupted utility poles.
BUSINESS MONDAY: Compensation query
SOME residents in Christ Church are calling on the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to indicate whether they are in line for compensation from the Barbados Light and Power over the delays in restoring their electricity.
The passage of Tropical storm Elsa on Friday disrupted power supplies in several areas of the country.
Business Monday spoke with some of the residents, particulary those in an area in Enterprise, who complained that they had to go more than two days without power.
When it was put to them that Elsa was an emergency, one irate individual said that the power outage resulted in a cost to him since he was forced to dump a lot of perishable food items which he said he paid for and did not like the idea of having to go two days without electricity.
“The absence of electricity resulted in the spoilage of a lot of stuff and up to now as we speak we are still without power,” he retorted.
This was confirmed by others some of whom said they had to purchase ice to in order to keep their items fresh.
The FTC as part of its regulation of local utilities has instituted what it calls Standards of Service which mandate that the BL&P, Cable and Wireless (Flow) and the Barbados Water Authority, provide safe, efficient and reliable services to customers.
In the event of service disruptions the utilities have a specific time in which to restore service, failing which the affected customers must be compensated.
Elsa which passed to the south of Barbados and packing winds of over 70 miles an hour, also knocked over houses, fell trees and disrupted utility poles. The system was subsequently updated to a Hurricane.