Belco has urged residents to make sure their generators are connected properly after cases of ‘back feeding’ into the electricity supplier’s tramsmission and distribution system.

This evening a spokeswoman said: “No one has been hurt yet, but we want to keep our workers and customers safe.

“Never try to power your house by plugging the generator into a wall outlet, a practice known as “back feeding”. It can lead to the electrocution of utility workers or neighbors served by the same utility transformer.

“Plug appliances directly into the generator, or use a heavy duty, outdoor-rated extension cord that is rated (in watts or amps) at least equal to the sum of the connected appliance loads.

“The only safe way to connect a generator to house wiring is to have a qualified electrician install a power transfer switch.”

Meanwhile at noon today 3,281 Belco customers were still without power — around the same number as this morning.

And police this morning asked motorists to avoid North Shore Road around Dock Hill, Devonshire while Belco staff worked on a downed wire.

A Belco spokeswoman said: “Belco wants customers to know that some crews had to be diverted from planned work today in order to rectify the damage on Dock Hill, after a commercial truck struck one of our poles and brought down lines this morning.

“Some jobs were slowed down by the Dock Hill incident today, but work on those scheduled restoration jobs will resume tomorrow. A complete list of tomorrow’s major work areas will be developed this evening and published for tomorrow morning.

“We are also watching weather conditions, which are expected to deteriorate this evening, and which may have an adverse effect on progress tonight. We cannot have crews working in unsafe weather conditions.”

Drivers were also being advised to avoid the area of Stowe Hill, Paget on Harbour Road, where debris is still being removed.

Traffic heading into Hamilton should divert to Middle Road via Manse or Chapel Roads, while traffic going out of the city should use Trimingham Road.

“Crews are in the field working on the large branch lines indicated in the list for today,” the Belco spokeswoman said. “In addition, since Monday, we have two Belco crews mobilised to deal with quick fixes and emergencies.

“This morning, they were joined by a third crew, the two-man crew from the Bahamas, who will also work on small jobs, accompanied by Belco underground crews.

“Tonight, an additional 12 linesmen will arrive from the Bahamas, Belize and Barbados. They will be deployed, starting tomorrow, to work on small jobs across the Island. By the end of the week, they will be joined by five linemen from the Cayman Islands, who will also work to restore power to small pockets of customers and individual customers.”

There are still residents in the dark that have been without power since Tropical Storm Fay ten days ago.

A spokeswoman for the company this morning shot down rumours that Belco did not have an adequate sully of materials to carry out the necessary repairs as false.

“Before the storms struck, Belco already had enough materials on hand, including poles, transformers, cross arms and cut outs,” she said. “In addition, we had materials air freighted in the day before Hurricane Gonzalo. And, in addition to that, we have had materials delivered already this week by container ship, and more materials are being delivered later in the week.”