Residents and staff at The Palms Elderly Care Facility faced an unsettling afternoon on Monday when the power went out at around 3 pm, leaving over 300 individuals in darkness for more than four hours. Electricity was finally restored at approximately 7:43 pm. There was no word yesterday from the Ministry of Human Services on this problem.
A staff member, who requested to remain anonymous, explained to SN the cause of the outage: “The main breaker tripped. The electrician was in Berbice, so he had to look for somebody to come. By the time they arrived, it was already night.”
During the outage, the lack of power raised concerns for the safety and comfort of residents, especially those on the lower levels of the facility. “Luckily, nobody is on machine support,” the staff member noted. “But there isn’t much ventilation on the bottom storey of the building, and the residents depend on fans for breeze. The panel for the generator usually flips. Last year, we had many power surges, and the generator would work then. It’s not checked very often—only about once every seven to eight months.”
The staff member expressed frustration with the situation, advocating for immediate improvements to the facility’s electrical systems. “We need an electrician who resides in town so that if there’s an electrical emergency, we can respond quickly. Instead of fixing the road, they should fix the generator or invest in another one. They’re budgeting millions for road repairs in the compound when what we really need is a backup generator.”
Despite the prolonged outage, the staff member felt fortunate that there were no serious medical needs among the residents during the outage. “Thank God nobody in the infirmary needed electricity,” the staff member said, highlighting the potential risks associated with such power failures.
