New Brunswick workers are helping rebuild Jamaica’s electrical system this holiday season

About 90 New Brunswick workers are spending the holidays in Jamaica, but not on a beach.

Instead, they are helping rebuild parts of the country’s electrical system destroyed when Hurricane Melissa hit the island nation on Oct. 28.

“We have a workforce that understands storms and power restoration and what it feels like to get into a situation where people haven't had electricity for, you know, going on their third month now,” said Louis Leger, part of the leadership team with Grand Falls-based Greystone Group.

The company does work across North America on electrical distribution and transmission systems, including storm response.

“When we made the call to folks to help, it was amazing the number of people that just stepped forward to say, ‘We're willing to go’, even though it's the holidays,” he said.

About 180 workers in total are on the ground now in Jamaica, said Leger, and 150 pieces of large equipment are en route to Montego Bay.

“The guys are anxious to get their equipment,” Leger said, “because right now they're working with their base tools and doing a lot of things by hand, which is a little slower.”

Leger, who spent about 50 days in Jamaica after the hurricane, said some parts of the country’s electrical system have been destroyed, and other areas are intact.

For the areas that were hit, “there's not much left,” he said. “You might have one pole, but then there's 100 poles that are gone. So it has to be completely rebuilt.”

The size of Jamaica’s system is comparable to New Brunswick’s, Leger said, and the extent of the damage wreaked by the hurricane is as if, “everything from Sackville, right up to Port Elgin, all of Moncton, most of Albert County, all of Kent County, and most of the Miramichi were down at the same time, and would need to be rebuilt from scratch.”

Storm response work often requires workers and companies to respond quickly to situations, said Leger, much like other emergency responders such as fire departments.

“It requires organization and readiness ahead of time,” he said.

It also requires skilled workers available to take the call.

“It takes a special kind of individual to go into a disaster zone,” Leger said. “But they do it because, you know, that's what they do. They understand the benefit that they bring.”

“Last week, the guys were incredibly proud because they created a micro grid for a hospital that was out since the hurricane hit,” Leger said. “So when they do that, it brings pride. That's important for them and for everybody.”