Kevon Felmine
Hundreds of residents in Corinth Hills, Ste Madeleine, were left without electricity yesterday morning after vandals cut utility cables, forcing households to cope with heat, disrupted routines and the risk of food spoilage for hours.
The incident adds to a growing number of cable vandalism cases affecting communities across the country, raising concerns about whether infrastructure in residential developments is being deliberately targeted.
Resident Aaron Ramsundar said there was a brief power outage during the night, though it lasted only a few seconds. Around 5.30 am, however, he heard a loud boom before the electricity went off for about 30 minutes.
He said he relies on a fan to sleep, so he got up, went outside, and returned to bed when power was restored. The supply, however, continued to fluctuate, with repeated interruptions accompanied by loud noises.
“It went again, and I said, ‘Well, I give up. I came outside, and by the time I looked, my neighbours were already looking out, and they saw the hole there; it was open, but I do not believe that was open before,” Ramsundar said.
He said when T&TEC crews began work around 7 am, power was again disconnected.
“I heard the wires got cut. I did not go investigate myself. I just heard the wires got cut.”
Ramsundar said he had only that morning been speaking with his brother about recent cable vandalism in Princes Town, suggesting it could be part of a wider pattern of disruption across the country.
Instead of watching the West Indies versus Sri Lanka Test match while his brother gamed, Ramsundar spent the morning on his balcony trying to cope with the heat as they waited for power to return.
“It is just distressing people to be honest, because people have fish, aquariums that need electricity to run. There is food already in the fridges. That is going to spoil. I know my leftovers from last night are going to spoil. I won’t be able to eat that, so yes, it is very distressing to people. That is how I feel about it.”
T&TEC crews worked along the corner of Otus and Apollo Lane yesterday morning, while crane trucks delivered generators to restore an interim power supply.
Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Edward Alexander highlighted the incident on Facebook, stating there was “MORE CABLE VANDALISM.”
He wrote: “Cable cutting vandalism at HDC Corinth Hill is causing approximately 220 customers to be without supply. T&TEC has already restored supply to approximately 140 customers, while more repairs are presently in progress. As a result, approximately 80 customers will be out of supply for approximately 3–4 hours.”
T&TEC personnel directed questions to the utility’s Corporate Communications Department, which did not respond to calls up to late yesterday.
Corinth/Cedar Hill councillor Shawn Premchand said residents contacted him shortly after the outage, and he was informed that approximately 300 customers were initially affected. He said most residents had since had their supply restored, while others were still awaiting reconnection.
Referring to a recent cable theft incident at Fairfield Estate in Princes Town, Premchand questioned whether HDC communities were being specifically targeted.
“I am not sure if it is a target of HDC developments. Just recently, we learned that they attempted to steal cables, also, in the Princes Town area of Fairfield, which is an HDC development, also, so I am asking if more can be done in terms of policing to try and crack down on these attempted disruptions that we are seeing right now with the T&TEC services and especially on HDC developments,” Premchand said.
On June 19, vandals plunged hundreds of residents in Princes Town and surrounding communities into darkness after damaging critical (T&TEC) infrastructure in the Fairfield Housing Development.
The attack left over 450 customers without electricity for several hours.
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