A Hamilton Parish petrol station hopes to be filling tanks again soon after suffering storm damage in Hurricane Franklin.

Joseph Marable, the manager of the Esso Crawl Hill station, said that while he could not give an exact timeframe for when the station will be pumping petrol again, he hoped the repairs would be in place before the start of spring.

“Our canopy came down with one of the storms several months back and our pumps were having major issues, but we are working very closely with our parent company, SOL, who owns the station,” he said.

“I know things have been ordered and I believe they should be on island soon. I believe they are sorting out their engineers and putting everything in place so they can start putting it up.

“It has been a bit of a challenge but we do appreciate the public’s response. It is a community store. We have been there for 20 years.”

Mr Marable added that beyond the storm, which caused the initial damage, the weather had made the project more difficult.

“I think they are hesitant to start anything right now because of the instability of the weather,” he said.

“Sunday was a beautiful day, but today I drove from Crawl to town and I was doing 15km/h at best because it was raining so hard and some of the roads aren’t the best.”

Mr Marable also said that the station’s location on North Shore meant its pumps were exposed to the elements, with salt spray being particularly damaging.

He added: “I tell all my staff that we went through the pandemic and at that point I think we were selling one inch a day.

“I am optimistic that things are going to turn around, sooner rather than later.”