Belco is asking residents to provide up to date and accurate information as their workers prepare for another hurricane season.

And they also want those who are dependent on electricity to run life support systems to make sure they are on the company’s medical priority list.

Belco has advised customers to review their most recent electricity bill to ensure that contact information is correct.

“During outages, especially those related to storms and hurricanes, customers are often directed to call 955 during the restoration efforts”, states Kerry Judd, Belco’s Corporate Communications Manager. “When they do call, if the phone number keyed in for the property experiencing the outage does not match the phone number already in Belco’s system against the account for that property, the customer may get a response from the system to this regard.

“As we continue our preparations for the 2016 hurricane season, we want to ensure that all contact information in our system, especially telephone numbers, is accurate and completely up to date.”

Mr Judd urged that customers who are dependent on electricity to run life support systems (life support/oxygen systems, body lifts for paralysis, etc) are named on the medical priority list. And they also must provide a letter from their physician confirming the medical condition and the dependency on electricity for care

“It should be noted,” continued Ms. Judd, “that in the case of a severe storm/hurricane and a major or extended power outage, Belco may advise medical priority customers to attend the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital due to the severity of the damage to the transmission and distribution system in the affected area.

“For example, if the customer’s property is fed from a branch line, but there is major damage to the main line upstream from which their branch line feeds, repairs must be completed on the main line first in order for their branch line to then be restored.

“Customers who need to provide updated telephone numbers or who have questions regarding being placed on the medical priority list should call Belco’s Customer Care Department on 299-2800 or e-mail info@belco.bm.

“Safe and timely power restoration to all of our customers, and especially to our special needs customers will always be a focus for Belco. We remain committed to responding to our customers needs as quickly and as safely as possible.”