B.E.L. customers in the dark; when will electricity be back on?

Most of the country still remains without power. Cities, towns and villages across the country lost power shortly after five on Sunday evening as Hurricane Richard made landfall near central Belize. It’s now twenty-four hours later and electricity is yet to be restored in areas in the central, western and southern districts. And according to B.E.L., it is working diligently, but complete restoration is not expected until later in the week. B.E.L. says the storm fell utility poles across the Belize and Cayo Districts significantly destroying numerous transmission lines.  It is prioritizing to restore electricity in key places, including hospitals.  The juice has been restored to Independence Village and Punta Gorda Town and is expected to be returned to La Democracia and Blackman Eddy villages by Tuesday.  In Dangriga half of all customers will be plugged in while the company continues to repair damaged infrastructure. B.E.L. says electricity should also be brought back other areas of Belize City, Ladyville and Hattieville later tonight.   There will be; however, areas that will remain without power for a longer period of time due to extensively damaged transformers and other equipment.  According to B.E.L., the Orange Walk and Corozal Districts as well as San Pedro Town in Belize Rural South were not affected by outages. We also note that kids will be staying home throughout Tuesday. Classes will not resume until Wednesday at the directive of the Ministry of Education.