No electricity on the entire island today

stbartshopper

Senior Insider
We received this email from friends who live on the island for 6 months of the year and wonder how often it occurs and why it might occur?-

" We had wanted to write this AM to wish you a good day today BUT we haven't had any electricity on the Island since 6 AM this morning! The pool man was locked inside our gate because the elec. went off after he had driven in!! (We eventually got him out of one side of our gate). It has been quite a day, with no water for flushing toilets or washing dishes or anything, not much opening the refrigerator to get food---although we have gas burners so we could boil water --and no food except salads at Do Brazil because they couldn't prepare things.!! We have NO idea what caused the problem, but the Island was virtually shut down. We were at the point of digging out candles---which I had to take to the tenants at our Villa rental---when the electricity came back on at dusk. Needless to say we are grateful!'
 
I don't know why, but it was island-wide... we had long periods of no power starting at 6am or so, then it would go on for a few minutes than zap off again. I have never seen it quite like that, usually one short period of time. I'll try and find out what was going on....
PS good reason not to have electric doors, windows, gates, etc... better to have things that open by hand, at least they open!
 
Good point Ellen. After experiencing a power outage last November, I have inquired, and now know how to manually open the electric gates at my November villa.
 
Perhaps the new regulations allowing the doubling of capacity of private property electric meters following the installation of new power generators this winter play a role ???

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Looking at recent threads on the forum and all those ancient pictures, there is clearly a lot of admiration for the St Barths of the past.....well it seems that thanks to the power outage some lucky ones had the privilege to experience it in real life..! :)
 
Power outages used to be an event to be counted on. Several times per week if not daily.

Some thoughts for the current period:

We always have some CASH.

I never let the car get below 1/2 full.

Do know how to manually open / close things. Most all items have manual overrides.

Keep frozen bottles of water in the freezer. A) you have cold, potable water. B) the ice keeps the freezer / fridge colder. (I do this today as a way to take cold water to the beach)

Keep that fridge and freezer door closed!

If on the island for an extended period of time, put your batteries in the fridge. They keep longer. (flashlights)

Use pool or cistern water to manually flush toilets if necessary. Most villas will have a plastic bucket for dipping and pouring.

Remember how to use a charcoal grill.

Go to bed when dark, wake when light.

I have alsways been able to find my glass, regardless of the power situation.

Tell stories, sing and enjoy the dark.

It is a rare treat today to be in a DARK environment. Take advantage of it.

Chas.
 
on the positive side without lights, the sky is full of stars and planets that you would not normally see.....so enjoy with a glass (or two) of wine
 
one of my old musings on the subject from The View From Here:

…Now What?
The small plane swoops in for a landing on the short runway on a perfect little Caribbean island. You step out onto the tarmac and savor the warm air and soft tropical breezes. You admire the green hillsides where houses with red or green roofs are tucked into the landscape. Hey, you think, wouldn’t it be great to build a house here? So you set out to visit the real estate agencies and are blown away by the prices but there is a small piece of land, not too far from a beach, that seems affordable, complete with a small house that can be expanded. So you go take a look. It’s fabulous. You buy it. You bring in your architect who has never built a house in the Caribbean before. He sweeps open the walls on the existing house, cuts down a series of protected tropical trees as they are in the way of his expansion plans, and adds a master bedroom suite with a large bathtub with Jacuzzi, rainforest shower head, and steam room. The swimming pool is heated. The living room is air-conditioned. You can’t get enough electricity from the local company so you install a giant generator. And move in for your one-month a year on the island during your August vacation. You hear rumors of a hurricane alert. The neighbors start rounding up loose items in their yards. Boats are being towed along the roads. How bad can it be, you wonder. Until the winds start to blow, the power goes out. Wait a minute, why didn’t the generator kick in? The next day you still have no power and can’t open any of the electric shutters so the house is in the dark. Can’t flush the toilets, as the electric pumps aren’t working. Can’t even get water from the pool as the electric cover was closed for the storm. So you walk over to the neighbors, who live in a charming little island cottage. They have opened their wooden shutters with their hands, and are calmly pulling a bucket of water from their small exterior cistern, to wash the walkway after sweeping up the branches that blew into their yard. Fish is on their BBQ and lunch will be ready in a little while. They invite you to join them, which is a blessing, as you can’t even boil water on your fancy electric stovetop. No problem you think, as you savor the local catch of the day, the generator will be working in no time. But not so fast! It’s been damaged by sand and salt water and the only repairman for this expensive Italian contraption lives on the next island over, and he can’t make it to your house for at least a week. No one else has the special tools required to get it up and running, so your house remains in the dark until the local power goes back on later that night. Who needs all this, you start to wonder, and think maybe you can put this house on the market and buy one of these little island-style houses that seem to survive, and like their native residents, know a thing or two about how to live on an island.
 
Ellen - that is terrific! Well written and oh so true....
While we are guilty of having an electric gate, it has battery backup ....I'll have to find out from our guests if it worked.
 
I have a gas stove, so no worries about cooking. the electric french fryer was not working, but potatoes and onions on the stove top worked out fine with a hamburger to go with it. life is good. sometimes its great to look at life without a tv or a computer, and very romantic.
 
As a long time reader of Ellen's wit and observation, I will say that the column she posted above is only one of a long series that is legendary for its sophistication and on-the-mark commentary. (If you ever can find it, the best column may have been one in which she noted that if God had meant palm trees to be wrapped in little twinkling lights, He would have put electric plugs in them!)

I'd also like to add to Charlie B's notes about power outages of ancient history (with respect for Chas' youth!). At the first visit of Wendy and me to SBH, we were in a charming, small cottage on the hillside immediately below Hotel Le Village St. Jean. There are so many fun stories to relate about the trip . . . not the least of which is that electricity on the island went off every night somewhere around 11 or Midnight. When it happened on our first night, we had been in bed only a short time and realized that something had changed, but didn't know what it was. Walking out onto our terrace, we saw that there were no electric lights to be seen. Candles and lanterns were becoming visible in windows of the few houses that we could see . . . and cars driving along the road in St. Jean looked like a scene from Disneyland's "Autobahn." (In those days, cars on SBH would turn off their headlights when another car approached on a road . . . courteously passing each other only using their "parking lights.") The island's electric generator (I suspect that there was only one at the time) would come on again around 8 in the morning . . . then, the familiar "hum" of a generator would return to St. Jean -- at least 'til Midnight came 'round again! It was a magical time.
 
In my earlier years on SBH I learned to carry a flashlight with me to dinner. When the power went out, as it occasionally did, the flashlight would become the candle on our table, and dinner would continue unabated. The late-night outages that occurred after we had returned to the villa were, as Henry notes, occasions for adult beverages and stargazing on the terrace. A blacked-out tropical island is a wonderful place to lay back and contemplate the Milky Way that most of us can no longer appreciate at home.
 
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