Six businesses on Reid Street suffered power outages today, apparently as a result of a flooding incident near the newly constructed Ninety-One, the office building formerly known as Brookfield House.

Some operators said they will close their doors for the day while others remained at their premises waiting out until more information is available or power restored.

Belco crews were on site at the Reid Street side of Ninety-One this morning and the outage affected buildings on both sides of the street.

A complete review is to be conducted into the event.

Shelly Leman, a managing director at Belco, said: “Six businesses on Reid Street near Chancery Lane are without power due to a fault in an underground vault that was flooded due to heavy rain.

“Belco crews are working to drain the water from the vault and restore the power as quickly and safely as possible.”

A spokeswoman for Ninety-One added: “Following extreme rainfall overnight, water entered a Belco utility vault serving the property.

“Belco temporarily shut down power as a safety precaution and we are actively working with them to restore service, conduct a full review of the event and support the affected tenants.”

Ivorie West, a manager at Luxury Cuts, said: “I came to the shop at about 8am and I realised that we do not have any power.

“I had to call my boss who called the owner of the shop to find out all the information.

“I get a follow-up on it to say there was some flooding issue, they don’t know what caused it. I am still waiting to find out what it is and why we don’t have any power.

“We are barbers, we need power to work and even the bathrooms are using pumps.

“All of us have a lot of appointments and we might have to cancel for the day, we will have to call the customers.

“It’s a big hit for this business, we are fully booked. It’s Thursday, coming up to the weekend, so all of us are fully booked today.”

The Booth, which sells sportswear next door, was also without power but was able to remain open.

Ashley Usher, the manager, said: “I came in at 9.41am, I turned the alarm off and tried to turn the light on. The lights are a bit tricky anyway, I wiggled [the switch] but it never came on. The alarm made a noise and maybe something tripped it.

“I came in and thought, I guess this is this type of day today.

“No one has come here. I called my boss, the owner, and Belco already had two trucks across the road so I knew they were doing something about it.

“We are open, we already had a customer. We can take cash and card as we did a hotspot to the card machine. We have our flashlight. No stress.

“We are just going to play it by ear and see what happens.

“I know a few years ago we had an island-wide blackout and we waited and left, and maybe 30 minutes after the power came back.”

Rock Island Coffee posted stories on its Instagram page, confirming the business had lost power and saying: “Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to be closed for the day.

“Hopefully back up and running in the morning tomorrow.”

Chancery Hall, which houses a number of buildings including Horizon Health on the ground floor, had no lights on.