Just over 3,200 homes were without power tonight as the first two overseas technicians arrived in Bermuda to join the electricity restoration operation.

A spokeswoman for Belco said: “At 9pm 3,281 customers are without power, but the number is expected to reduce as crews finish jobs tonight.

“Areas of work that will be focused on today are: Zuill’s Park, Bride Hill, Knapton Hill, Lightbourne Lane, John Smith’s Bay, Jennings Land, Whitney Institute, St Johns Preschool, Tankfield, Places Point, Crestwood Crescent, Blucks Point, Turks Head Lane, Seabright Lane, Mill Reach Lane, Highwood Lane, Scarrington Hill, Salt Kettle, Tribe Road #3 and Harbour Rd, South Shore and Marley Beach.”

At 3pm the customers without power were listed as 1,177 in the central parishes, 103 in the city, 1,393 in the East and 756 in the West, those totals will be slightly altered as a result of further connections made this evening.

Help is on the way as crews from the Caribbean electric utility companies are expected to arrive tomorrow to team up with Belco. Two technicians arrived today.

“CARILEC don’t send crews in advance of storms, only in response to storms once damage has been assessed and a work plan developed,” explained a Belco spokeswoman.

“This is because we are drawing resources away from other electric utility companies.

“Each day, crews will be given a list of areas where the day’s work will start.

“There is a lot of damage, including downed lines, poles and transformers, and a lot of vegetation and other debris to deal with.

“Some of these jobs will be completed quickly, while others will take the entire day, and may even extend into the following day.

“We will continue to update the work list, as some areas are restored and additional jobs are tackled. We do have a crew with contractors dedicated to pole replacement, while other crews are out scouting and dealing with jobs that can be quicker fixes.

“CARILEC crews will be working on small, low-voltage line jobs, supervised by Belco staff, who know our system.”

The areas where crews worked today were:

• Cove Valley

• Ferry Reach

• Emily’s Bay Lane

• Devil’s Hole to Harrington Hundreds

• South Shore, Smiths

• Jennings Land

• Shark Hole Hill

• North Shore, Shelly Bay

• St. John’s Hill

• Admiralty House

• Bluck Point Road

• Places Point

• Seabright, Paget

• Ess Hill

• Cobbs Hill

• South Shore, West

• Spring Benny/Broken Hill

“There is a lot of damage in some of these areas, so work will be slow-going,” said the spokeswoman.

“Also, although an area is restored, small pockets of customers or individual customers may still be without power in the area, depending on damage.

“These jobs will put on relatively small numbers of customers with each job completion — probably 75 customers or less with each job.

“Some of these jobs include work on main roads. The Regiment will be working alongside Belco to direct traffic at the most difficult locations. Motorists are urged to exercise caution and to obey the Regiment’s traffic direction, so that no one is injured on the road in the course of doing this work.”

Belco warned that some customers who have had power restored will find that it goes out again temporarily, either for a short time or an hour or more. This is the result of Belco’s control centre switching to restore power to additional customers.

“We have heard that the community is concerned that we have reached out to the 1,500 customers who have not had electricity since Tropical Storm Fay,” said the spokeswoman.

“We apologise if this has caused any concern. We are doing this only so that when we get down to smaller jobs — which all of the 1500 were. We will be able to try to prioritise those who have been without power longest. We are not guaranteeing that this can be done.

“Damage and logistics may, indeed, make prioritisation impossible in some cases.

“Also, please note, we are reconciling the e-mails and phone calls that come in with the information in our system to ensure that the customers on the Fay 1500 list are truly customers who have been without power since the first storm.

“Another note for customers with partial power is if lights are not going ‘bright and dim’, then there is no danger, but it is advisable to unplug sensitive electronics that could be damaged. If lights are going bright and dim, please report the situation.”