Tropical Storm Grace left tens of thousands in the dark - Cayman Compass

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At about 4:30am on Wednesday, 18 Aug., Tropical Storm Grace became more than a minor inconvenience for nearly half of Grand Cayman, as it downed power lines and plunged some 27,000 people into darkness.

As of Friday afternoon, 600 CUC customers were without power.

“We lost quite a few of the circuits due to the wind impact, trees on the line and a few poles down,” said CUC President and CEO Richard Hew in an interview with the Cayman Compass.

CUC’s total grid comprises 25 circuits; only four remained online through the storm. Hew said initial efforts to restore power were hampered after the company’s system became unstable and collapsed, causing the entire grid to shut down.

Despite the systemwide shutdown, Hew said no more than 5% of the total grid was affected.

“If we were to look at… percentages of poles and percentages of miles of… lines, it is very small,” he said. “If you compare this to Hurricane Ivan, where we had… around 25% of damage, this, I would say, is maybe between 1-to-5% of the system.”

CUC’s crews took to the streets, and after working through the Wednesday night – on into mid-morning Thursday – electricity was restored to 21,500 customers.

“It’s been a long haul,” he said. “In terms of our crew both out on the lines and here in the control room, we have to limit them to 16 hours of continuous work for...



Read Full Story: https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/08/22/tropical-storm-grace-leaves-tens-of-thousands-in-the-dark/

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