The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Eleuthera-based businesses yesterday complained that the weekend’s 24-hour plus electricity outage has cost them both time and money.

Keyshna Kemp, owner of Da Wash House in North Eleuthera, together with her employees, spent three hours washing, sanitiding and folding clients’ clothing at no additional cost after the outages this weekend. She did not charge service fees after customer clothing was “held hostage”, as the power outages also interrupted water supply to double her company’s issues.

“So what we had to do is when the water came on, when the power came on - because the water was still off, but our tank was full at that time - we had to make sure, wash the people’s clothing over and over,” Mrs Kemp said.

“We had to put different sanitisers in them. Because remember, this is from midday on Saturday to about 7pm,last night [Sunday]. So we have to wash these people’s clothes over and over and over. Then we’re throwing them in the dryer, then we’re calling them, ‘come and get your clothes.’

“And a Lady was like, ‘yes, because I really needed this for in the morning’. I’m just grateful that school was closed and the kids didn’t need their uniform. So we were there last night just washing the ones that were in there.”

Mrs Kemp said she stopped accepting new customers knowing that water would soon “run out”. She added that her focus was on handling the items already in her care. “Customers showed up and had they come to wash. We would have been there all night long,” she added.

“But no, our priority was the ones already in the washer that were starting to stink and needed to be rewashed over and over, needed to be sanitised. Any extra powders and solvents we use, that was on us. We didn’t charge you for us having to use extra powder, extra detergent, extra sanitizer. We washed them until we got them clean.

“Service charge on each washer is about $4 an extra load, and we had about ten to 15 washers that we had to do. So you multiply that by four, and that is separate from the sanitizers that we had to use in the people’s clothing,” Mrs Kemp continued.

“That is separate from the powder that we had to use. It’s not their fault. We couldn’t charge them for that because normally if you come to the wash house and you leave your items, we have to dry them, wash them, fold them. We charge you extra.”

Nahla Sands, a pet sitter, said both Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the water interruption threw her “schedule all the way off”. She told Tribune Business she tried to fit as many clients in as she could before travelling but, due to the utility outages, she was unable to meet those commitments.

Ms Sands was in the process of grooming a dog when the power cut out on Saturday. She said she did not want to return the dog to her clients in that condition, resulting in her having to keep the dog over the weekend.

“Well, that one dog I was shaving from Saturday actually,” she said. “I literally had to keep the dog because I didn’t want to send it home half-done. I was able to complete the dog this morning after going to my father’s home to bathe the dog as water was still off. I didn’t want to keep those people’s pet any longer. It was already two days. Thankfully we are all going through this struggle and they understood.”

Annette Young, an owner of a bed and breakfast, had a generator to help get through the weekend outage as well as no guests at the time. She said a couple who own a “manor” in Whale Point made arrangements for BPL linesmen to stay the night after repairing the outages.

“In Whale Point, we have a gentleman, Mr Moss, Victoria and Huey Moss, and they own a building that has, I think, three or four rooms in it and they have now been contacted and set up to house, if in advance knowledge, rooms for the BPL crew so that we can house a bucket truck north of the bridge if the bridge closes,” Ms Young said.

“Because usually we are the last to be repaired if the bridge closes because all workers and bucket trucks stay south of the bridge. So the idea came from the gentleman from our Whale Point community because of the manor that is here and has availability.

“And we spoke to Mr Moss and they, in turn, spoke to BPL and they have made arrangements. I think that the BPL crew that came up last night did in fact stay there. So they worked most of the night to try to get power restored to a lot of people, especially the people in Current who were out the longest because all the other bucket trucks were south helping those people down there.”

Eleuthera residents say BPL’s bucket truck stays south of the Glass Window Bridge, resulting in prolonged outages when the bridge is closed, as linesmen cannot travel across to service the northern portion of the island.