Fed up with not being lit up, a lawyer on St. Croix has gone to the top to voice his frustration with the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s electrical restoration efforts after Hurricane Lenny.
On Tuesday, attorney Richard Hunter wrote letters to Gov. Charles Turnbull, Raymond George, WAPA’s executive director, and Senate President Vargrave Richards in which he questioned the utility management’s handling of post-storm efforts.
The 22-year resident of St. Croix, who lives in Estate Seven Hills, said his family and 100 others in All For the Better and Eliza’s Retreat were still without power.
WAPA is reporting that it is back to producing some 85 percent of its normal electrical load two weeks after the storm, but Hunter said that isn’t the issue. "The issue is how many residents are without power," he said on Wednesday.
In his letter, Hunter said that if WAPA’s 85 percent figure is accurate, "then it is fair to say that about 8,000 residents on St. Croix remain without electrical power almost two weeks after the passage of Hurricane Lenny."
As of Wednesday afternoon, Hunter said he had not received a response from either Turnbull or George. Efforts to reach George Wednesday were unsuccessful and WAPA spokeswoman Patricia Blake Simmonds was not available.
Hunter said the biggest question for him is why WAPA didn’t bring in outside help to assist in the restoration. He said the federal government’s declaration that the territory is a federal disaster area should have covered most of the cost of outside assistance.
And while George said at the beginning of the week that WAPA will restore power to the island by this coming Monday with crews from St. Thomas, Hunter said the utility never told the public how much manpower and equipment was transferred between districts.
"If you have 100 poles down and one crew that can only put up three poles a day," Hunter said, "it doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to understand that you need more equipment."
"What explanation does the government and WAPA have for the thousands of residents on St. Croix who are still without power?"
George said the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority was unable to assist on St. Croix due to emergencies on Vieques and that the utility doesn’t have the money to hire Southern Energy.
Hunter praised the WAPA employees that are working 12-hour days to return power. His problem, he said, is with the utility’s management.
"Nobody is saying the WAPA crews aren’t working hard," he said. "It’s an administrative issue. There’s no valid explanation I can even dream of that can justify the failure."
Although he is an attorney, Hunter said he doesn’t plan on taking legal action against the government.
"I’m trying to publicize the need for more response from WAPA and the government," he said.
