BLACKOUT DURING WORLD CUP

Citizens of several areas of Trinidad and Tobago were reportedly in the dark concerning the outcome of World Cup matches on Thursday as a result of interruptions in the electricity supply. Complaints coming in from Valsayn, Diego Martin and Petit Valley stated that power outages occurred during the much anticipated game of our Soca Warriors against England as well as the other group match Sweden versus Paraguay.

Calls to TTEC’s Arima Customer Service Centre provided an explanation for the outage within the eastern district.

Power to the area known as Bamboo Trace #1 was interrupted at 11.25am as a result of a vehicle colliding with electricity wires in the area.

The situation was rectified one hour and 25 minutes later, approximately 20 minutes into the Trinidad and Tobago against England match.

According to an official at the centre, it was the only outage in the eastern realm.

The entire western peninsula was without power for 45 minutes during the latter half of the Sweden-Paraguay encounter as a result of “system problems” according to an official of the St James Customer Service Centre. The lower Petit Valley area suffered from the loss of the use of electricity for one hour but this was at 7pm on Thursday evening.

TTEC apologised via a release for outages which occurred yesterday in the North West region.

Point Cumana, Carenage, Chaguaramas, Petit Valley, Cocorite and parts of Diego Martin were without power as a result of generating problems in the early afternoon.

Power was restored to Westmoorings, Cocorite and some parts of Petit Valley, Carenage and Diego Martin by the time the release reached Newsday while other affected areas were expected to have their supply returned by 4.15pm.

Grievances were also expressed by persons at the Piarco International Airport at the time of the Soca Warriors’ match as they were unable to view the game.

Corporate Communications Manager of the airport Ellen Lewis Adamson stated that television monitors were in place within the International and Domestic Departure Lounges. Therefore persons checking in for flights would be able to view the game while persons in the general area of the airport would not be able to do so.