East End residents left without power after a cable was damaged by Belco workers are calling for compensation.

Almost 3,000 homes suffered a power cut from about 1.30 p.m. on Monday. Power was restored in stages throughout Monday night and the early hours of yesterday morning, with some customers having to wait until after 8.30 a.m.

Michael Bickley, of Ferry Reach, said his electricity came back on at 8.35 a.m. after he had been without power and water for 19 hours.

“If I don’t pay my bill on time, I lose my discount, yet they can chop and change my service without me getting any sort of discount,” said the 73-year-old.

“If they can’t provide a service, then they should give us a discount. Nobody contacted me about the power cut. Usually I have the air conditioning on when I go to bed. I was very, very hot. I didn’t sleep that well. I couldn’t get any water as the pumps weren’t working.”

A female resident of Ferry Reach, who asked not to be named, said she was forced to eat out in Hamilton as there was no way of cooking food at home.

“I’m livid,” said the 21-year-old. “It’s the middle of summer. People want to come home from work and turn on their A/C and relax, not sit outside to catch the breeze and light candles. They should give compensation because, for instance, I had to stay in town last night to buy food.”

The outage happened after a high voltage cable was damaged by Belco staff working near Flatts substation on Monday morning, causing two other cables to overload in the afternoon.

Areas affected included Tucker’s Town, Mullet Bay, Harrington Sound and Shark Hole, though the town of St. George, LF Wade International Airport and Grotto Bay Hotel still had power. Belco estimated that power would be restored for all by 11 p.m. but that was hampered when the repair crew had to drill through hard rock and replace part of a cable, rather than just fix it. At least ten Belco workers plus staff from D&J Construction worked through the night to get the power back.

Belco spokeswoman Linda Smith said three circuits were restored at 10 p.m., six at 1 a.m. and five between 4 and 4.40 a.m.

“The two main cables supplying the East End are back in service and security,” she said yesterday. “Work is under way on repairs to one of the smaller back-up cables. That will be completed today and the second identical cable will be repaired on Wednesday.”

She added: “The last circuits were restored at 4.40 a.m. this morning. It was not until then that Belco was aware of additional problems that had not been rectified with the reinstatement of supply to the circuit.

“As a result of the high loads during restoration earlier in the morning, we experienced a couple of branch line problems and transformers that had fuses blown. The order of restoration is based on getting the largest number of customers back with a single job, so the order of on-site response restorations was branch lines, transformers and then individual service.”

Ms Smith said compensation was not offered after a power outage. “When the lights go out the meter stops turning so the customer is not paying for electricity at that time,” she said.