Castries, December 25, 2013 – As at 5:30 p.m. power had been restored to nearly all areas that had been affected by outages resulting from the heavy rains and severe lightning of yesterday and last night.

St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) Transmission and Distribution Manager Gilroy Pultie says only some parts of Banse (in Laborie), Fond Nathaniel (near Desruisseaux), Hope Estate (in Choiseul) and Soufriere have not been re-energised.  However, he expects that power will be restored to Soufriere this evening once work on a broken pole near the Choiseul Police Station has been completed and a large tree is cleared off the power lines at Etangs.

All other areas around the island have power, except for a few isolated pockets which will be attended to over the next several hours.

The power company was able to get its crews across the Piaye River with the help of the Ministry of Infrastructure, to effect the repairs to the system in Choiseul.

The next update will be issued on Thursday, December 26, 2013.