Public outcry at unscheduled power interruption
Persons miss proclamation of Obama as US President
By Melissa Bryant
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – RESIDENTS of St. Kitts who stayed up late to watch Barack Obama declared the first black US President were severely disappointed, as power was disrupted shortly after 11 p.m., preventing many of them from seeing when the historic moment occurred.
According to a press release disseminated by the Needsmust Power Station, Station Maintenance personnel reported an abnormal burning smell in the area of the switch gear room in the upper station at 11:11 p.m. Their subsequent observations revealed thick smoke in the area of the upper station distribution panel.
The release further stated that as a safety precaution, the entire upper station was de-energised. The Holeby number one and Holeby number two engines and the feeders for Cayon, SSMC, South East Peninsula, Basseterre North, Port Zante and Canada were taken offline.
The system consequently became unstable resulting in engines in the lower station tripping offline. Its feeders were opened in order to restore stability and the engines were restarted and placed online, resulting in the closing of the feeders for Basseterre South, Industrial Site, Frigate Bay and Bayfords.
However, the explanation does not appease the scores of angry persons who feel that the moment was taken away from them.
“This is a defining moment not just in black history, but for history in general, and we were robbed of witnessing it. I stayed up because I wanted to see everything: CNN’s official projection of Obama as the President-elect, McCain’s concessional speech and Obama’s victory speech. ~~Adz:Right~~
“I wanted to see it all for myself and not have to go on YouTube the next day because our power operators are incompetent. A US friend of mine told me that a CNN pundit stated that the first declaration of Obama’s victory ‘was one of those rare moments that you’ll never forget and always remember where you were when it happened’. I’ll never have that experience,” said an irate resident of St. Peter’s.
Another compared living in St. Kitts to “living in the Stone Age”.
“Aren’t we renting these generators so that these unscheduled interruptions don’t occur? These politicians will talk about change and the same thing keeps happening. I will never forgive St. Kitts for depriving me of witnessing such a historical moment.”
Full restoration of the engines and feeders was completed by approximately 03:45 hours and investigation revealed that a faulty isolator switch in the upper station had caused the faillure.
