Saturday night, March 17, was a time of celebration, reflection and emotion at the Royale Caribbean Resort. It was when the Anguilla Electricity Company (ANGLEC) recalled its Herculean, but successful and praiseworthy task, of restoring the island-wide electricity network destroyed by Hurricane Irma – and the arduous work of the various recovery teams over 100 days.
Government officials, ANGLEC’s corporate, management and staff personnel, electricity restoration teams from Anguilla and outside the island, family members and other members of the public, filled the resort’s huge dining room to capacity for the dinner and awards celebration. The event was called to order by ANGLEC’s Human Resources staff members, Ms. Erimel Franklin (Manager) and Ms. Marva Richardson (Assistant), and Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Jemila Morson-Hodge, who ably chaired the event.
The opening prayer was delivered by former Chairman of ANGLEC’s Board, Pastor Gareth Hodge, who was grateful for God’s guiding hand and all who worked tirelessly and long hours to restore electricity to the island. He was still the Chairman of the Board during the restoration work and was praised for his assistance at that critical time.
Governor Tim Foy, OBE, whose office has responsibility for Disaster Management (through Deputy Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley), addressed the gathering. “I think it is quite significant that ANGLEC chose today, March 17, as the day to celebrate the restoration because many people thought that this was the day that electricity would be re-established across the island,” he said. “In the difficult days of the first and second weeks of September, most people were saying it would take six months but we got there in three. It took a great deal of commitment and understanding of the reality of the situation to get there, and I think we should celebrate that now. It was a remarkable achievement and remarkable people made that happen.”
The Governor paid tribute to four groups of people: the Board of Directors and Senior Management Team; the various restoration teams from Anguilla, other Caribbean islands and Canada; ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr. David Gumbs, for his outstanding leadership role; and the people of Anguilla for their remarkable patience, understanding and support.
Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks, said: “I think it is important that we recognise the significant task that was accomplished by ANGLEC’s Board of Directors; Management and Staff and the support received from across the region [and from Canada].” He particularly thanked the families of the electricity restoration workers who, in his view, took second place to the task of the recovery, but understood the situation.
Mr. Banks was pleased that he had come across a number of persons who were very critical of ANGLEC, over the years, but who were now very complimentary of the way the company carried out the electricity recovery after the severe weather event. “I want to congratulate the entire community for their patience and forbearing because it took a long time for you to get accustomed to being without electricity, especially our young people,” he told his listeners. “I think it is important that we have an event like this to commend ANGLEC for what it has done and the selfless effort its workers brought to the table to make this [the recovery] happen.
“I look forward for the continued support from the community for ANGLEC, because its task remains challenging – and I pledge the support of the Government in ensuring that ANGLEC continues to be able to carry out its functions in a very effective and efficient way.”
Struggling to control his emotions, ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr. David Gumbs, in recounting his personal encounter with Irma at his residence, said that the hurricane and the level of its devastation were beyond any experience he ever hoped to have in his lifetime.
He stated, however, that his real experience, in terms of dealing with the situation, was the teamwork he witnessed during the restoration effort. He noted that the first call he received was from Mr. Andrew Thorington, Project Manager from CARILEC (Caribbean Electric Utility Service Corporation) offering assistance. He was grateful to Mr. Thorington (one of the awardees) and the various teams from the rest of the region, and Canada, for their quick response and service – as well as the work of ANGLEC’s own workers for their dedication to duty and the eventual success of the restoration effort.
In his wide-ranging address on the enormity of the task, Mr. Gumbs declared: “We had nothing but God on our side because there were so many things that could have gone wrong with this initiative, including one thing that could shutdown the whole programme: the availability of materials and our competition with larger, more financed and more resourced countries than Anguilla.” He further recalled: “When we had over 100 people on the ground, the only thing we had in our way were materials and there were many times we were out of the smallest of things that created the biggest challenge. That was: we could restore power to a certain point, but we couldn’t put it to persons’ homes.”
Mr. Gumbs told of how ANGLEC eventually succeeded in its restoration work and lauded all of his departmental personnel and the outside workers who completed the task in record time. He added: “I want to say a simple thank you to everybody involved in the restoration effort. Every single person stood up and made us get this done. It cannot be described in words, and there is no value you can place on the true commitment and sacrifice that was made in this restoration effort.”
Off the podium, Mr. Gumbs told The Anguillian that one of the things he was especially happy about was that, with the varied challenges of mangled cables, broken and fallen poles, other dangers and risks facing the work teams, there were no unfortunate incidents as was the case in other hurricane-hit islands.
Newly re-elected Chairman of ANGLEC’s Board, Mr. Harold Ruan, remarked in his usual vocal and colourful style: “With the restoration programme we had the CEO at the top and maybe you can say the messenger at the bottom. No one, absolutely, in the programme, was more important than the other. It was a gesture of teamwork and that’s the reason that the dream work was completed in approximately 100 days.”
During the closing portions of the event, each of ANGLEC’s department heads gave glowing accounts about the work of the attached teams, and thereafter awards were distributed to various persons.
