The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

CANCELLED therapy sessions, frustrated clients, and autistic children who have their crucial routines disrupted -- these are effects of Bahamas Power and Light's consistent load-shedding exercises that Carla Gibson experiences every day.

Ms Gibson is the owner and director of the Renee Oneil Centre for Child Development & Research (ROC), an applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapy centre for children with special needs or other behavioural challenges.

Ms Gibson's seven-staff complement includes therapists who work with children in daily one-on-one and group sessions as well as a special needs teacher.

"My business has been really impacted by BPL," Ms Gibson told The Tribune. "I've had to cancel sessions, I've had to send staff home.

"We are a small business so I can't afford a generator. But because of the kind of work that we do - our therapy is really involved - it can get very hot and very uncomfortable very fast."

When asked how the outages have affected the children she works with, Ms Gibson replied: "Not only is it important for them to have their therapy on a consistent basis, most of the clients that we service are children with autism and for children with autism, having a consistent routine is extremely important.

"So when we have to cancel services at the last minute or when we have to cut a session short, a lot of our clients get upset because that's not the routine that they're used to. So it causes them to miss critical sessions but it also disrupts their regular routine, which can spill over into many other areas of their life -- that frustration that they feel when their routine is disrupted."

Ms Gibson also detailed the financial impact of the load-shedding exercises.

"The outages have impacted me financially because like I said, if it's off for too long and it's just too hot, then I have to cancel a session. And I have to send therapists home. And if I have to cancel a session and send therapists home I still have to pay them. So that's money that we're still paying out but we're unable to collect because we can't deliver the therapy."

She said her team members also provide at-home therapy to clients. Some of these sessions have been cut short due to power cuts creating uncomfortable conditions.

"And I can't charge the parent for an entire session, that's not their fault," she said.

Purchasing a generator, Ms Gibson noted, would only exacerbate these financial issues.

"When I first moved into our building, I thought about a generator. But we have recently done some renovations and those renovations went over budget much more than we planned, so we just don't have that excess cash. I'm thinking more strongly about it now because of how bad the outages have gotten.

"But thinking about getting a generator and being able to afford it is a different thing."

Ms Gibson, though only 28, described the outages this summer as the worst she's experienced. She added there have been times when electricity has been shut off for five hours.

Meanwhile George Lindsey, owner of Lindsey's Convenience on Nassau Street, said he is going to have to spend about $6,000 to purchase and install a generator large enough to facilitate his store.

"I have two (generators) but they're small," Mr Lindsey said. "They can't run this."

However, this additional expense comes as the outages are causing him to lose "a hell of a lot of money," he told The Tribune.

In addition to dry goods, he sells sandwiches and baked goods - things he cannot heat up to sell if the electricity goes out.

"If the current off, then I doomed," he said. "That's the bottom line."

Alex Reckley, owner of Principal Convenience, also underscored the negative impact the outages have had on his business.

"It certainly has impacted us negatively," Mr Reckley said. "We've been off for extremely long periods of time and it has affected the ability to be able to sell the cold stuff, which is generally in our freezer and in the coolers.

"Things like ice cream and soft popsicles, they just melt on you…And then you either have to give them away or sell that at a significantly reduced price. But it has been very, very difficult.

"And to be closed for most of the time or to be open without any electricity, you would certainly lose a lot of business. Because a lot of things that you need electricity for that you are unable to do once there is no power."

Unfortunately, unlike Mr Lindsey, purchasing a generator is something Mr Reckley cannot currently consider.

"I can't afford the generator at this particular time," he said. "So it's something that I think based on the frequency with which BPL goes off, that is absolutely necessary nowadays. But for the time being I didn't make the preparation to deal with that. It's not going to be easy. They don't come cheap."

Mr Reckley, at age 72, echoed Ms Gibson's remarks that this summer is the worst the outages have ever been.

"I have never, ever in my life experienced light going off every single day. There is no day where I can say there is a relief. Three hours, sometimes it goes more than three hours. But it's never been like this. Never, never, never," Mr Reckley said.