In the aftermath of the Hurricane Tomas, which left devastation mainly in the north eastern and north western regions of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, LIME has assessed the damage to their network in St Vincent and the Grenadines at approximately EC$17 million. This assessment was done on the core fixed line and mobile equipment, line plant, property and disruption to business.{{more}}

General Manager Angus Steele made the announcement as the company came in for high praise for the performance of its network during the passage of the storm. Said Steele “We have been in the telecommunications business for over 140 years and our networks have been built to withstand severe hurricane conditions. We suffered mainly from electrical outages and damage to our overhead line plant infrastructure. We have seen in some cases where the several main cables that fed major districts were cut and stolen. We have damage to building and property and disruption to our business.”

Damage to line plant account for most of the cost as most of the overhead cables north of the dry river were damaged as a result of fallen trees and landslides. Ten rural exchanges received minor damage. Outages to mobile cell sites account for over about 55 per cent of the cost which was due mainly to electrical outages where generator sets or battery systems ran dry from prolonged commercial power outages or where no backup systems were available. Several advertising billboards were destroyed.

Manager Finance Wayne Hull commented on the damage and said “We can not only look at damage to a business as physical damage, but outages account for cost as well. We have to project this loss over a period of time to understand the true cost to the business or business interruptions. Our earning potential must be considered. So when lines are down and exchanges are out of service, we have to calculate the cost to the business as a result of hundreds of customers being out of service.”

LIME came in for high praise during the passage of Hurricane Tomas for the performance of the network and their communications with the public. In addition to the donation of radios and other hurricane relief supplies already donated to the Langley Park shelter, the company is presently carrying out restorative work to the most affected areas while continuing to address normal business operations throughout the rest of the country.