"As history and our experience has proven, there is a direct correlation between the rare cases of extended power outages brought about by storms, and the interest and commitment to investing the estimated $250 million it would take to underground the entire Island over a ten to 20 year period."

Those were the words of Belco Holdings Ltd. chief executive officer Garry Madeiros in his quarterly letter to shareholders yesterday.

He was right about the correlation, just as he was correct when he later added that once discussions about the project got underway: "Government and community interest and participation in these discussions declined as other pressing issues took priority".

When a major storm comes and the lights go out for weeks, everyone thinks that trenching is the answer.

But as memories of the storm and the related inconvenience fade, so too does the community's passion for the project and the expense, which as Mr. Madeiros has noted, is enormous.

Then too, trenching is not the ultimate solution that it may first seem to be. Hurricanes like Fabian and Emily can damage underground lines just as they can damage overhead lines - and underground faults take much longer to repair, as St. George's, which has had some overhead lines trenched, has learned.

Mr. Madeiros is also right to say that it is too much for one company to bear. Ultimately the costs would be passed on to the consumer and if Belco has 25,000 customers, that means each would pay $10,000 for the privilege of having underground lines. If the project took ten years, then that would be $1,000 a year per customer.

And the spectre of continual roadworks and road closures for the next decade also needs to be taken into account.

The cost and disruption needs to be balanced against the likelihood that serious outages of the kind caused by Fabian and Emily only occur every 15 years or so. The likelihood of being out of power for an average of one day a year has to be balanced against the cost and inconvenience of trenching.

There is the risk that severe hurricanes will strike Bermuda more often in the future. But there is as good a chance that there will be fewer strikes (before Emily, there had not been a major hurricane in 24 years).

That does not mean that there is no case for expanding the number of underground lines, as Belco has been doing already.

This could be expanded in a prudent way to ensure that lines to strategic locations (hospitals, Police stations, nursing homes and so on) are trenched, and that where possible main power lines are trenched so that restoration is that much easier.

But trenching the entire Island is too high a price to pay for the potential benefit.