David Ezekiel, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies, said last week?s power failure caused ?great concern? in the business community, but cautioned the sector to wait for Belco?s full explanation of what triggered the Island-wide blackout before letting fears that the same could happen again, set in.

In a memorandum to ABIC?s 140 members, Mr. Ezekiel said he met with Belco executives Garry Madeiros and Vince Ingham this week, at their request, and made it clear to them the business community expected some clear explanation of what caused the explosion that wiped out power, and took three days to restore to Hamilton. He said businesses would depend on Belco?s feedback as they made or reviewed contingency and disaster recovery plans.

The power failure left much of the Island without power for most of last Thursday, while Hamilton was the worst hit area with the city?s power not restored, in areas, until 5 a.m. on Sunday.

Mr. Ezekiel said Belco wanted to reassure members that the power company did have a number of back-up systems and ways to supply Hamilton with power.

?I believe we should wait to hear from Belco over the next few days and should avoid jumping to conclusions or forming opinions based on some of the public conjecture, much of which is clearly uninformed,? he said.

Some companies temporarily moved key staff off the Island in the wake of the power failure, and a limited number expressed concerns on how robust Belco?s system was. Many said they would not view the blackout as a serious incident, as long as it was put to rights quickly, and it was clear there was little chance of this occurring again.

Belco said it expected to be able to give the community more information as soon findings from its investigation were in hand.