Guadeloupe without electricity, residents organize themselves as best they can

GUADELOUPE – The “widespread power cut” took everyone by surprise in Guadeloupe this Friday, October 25. Caused by “striking employees” of the power station which supplies almost the entire archipelago, it affects all the inhabitants. The return to normal on the electricity network will not be effective, “in the best case scenario”before 3 p.m. (local time).

Cet “complete shutdown of the plant led to the collapse of the entire electrical system”underlined the prefect Xavier Lefort during a press point, rebelling against an act which puts “severely” endangering the population.

Meanwhile in the archipelago, the announcement of this widespread outage has caused some concern, particularly concerning the distribution of water and the operation of the hospital.

“The maintenance teams have activated the generators on all the sites concerned” as soon as the outage was noticed, indicated the Guadeloupe Hospital Center (CHUG) in a press release. “The hospital’s critical units have an autonomy of 72 hours”continued the CHUG.

230,000 households impacted

In a supermarket in Gosier, near Pointe-à-Pitre, residents were pushing carts with several packs of water and certain brands were already missing from the shelves, but nothing compared to the moments preceding the arrival of a hurricane. In Jarry, the economic heart of the archipelago, some stores were starting to close.

The situation is complicated for Léon Prosper Jimmy, an ambulance driver near Pointe-à-Pitre, “during treatment at the patient’s home or upon returning home for those who live in a building where there is an elevator”he explains to AFP. So you have to carry them up the stairs, “In the hands of men, we take turns, we call colleagues for reinforcement, like the firefighters in 3 or 4, we have to lift”continues the 41-year-old man. “ We manage as best we can”he said. The mobile telephone network is also unstable, said the prefect.

“Nearly 230,000 households are impacted by this cut”wrote on X Olga Givernet, Minister Delegate for Energy, ensuring the mobilization of services and operators in order to restore “as soon as possible” access to electricity for every Guadeloupean.