A single mother has said that she is at the end of her tether after being out of power for 17 days as a result of the two storms.

Raenette Butterfield, 37, is one of 295 customers still awaiting power and she has been out since Tropical Storm Fay hit on October 12. With tears streaming down her face, Ms Butterfield described the frustration of trying to look after her nine-year-old daughter Adesina while holding down a job with no lights, water or refrigeration.

“I have been very patient and very understanding,” she said yesterday. “I know Belco are working very hard but this is what it is. I need them to put my lights on; it is ridiculous.

“Nobody in our area seems to care, even though they know we have no power. They have not come up to say, ‘Do you need anything? Do you need to charge your phone? Do you need some water to flush your toilet?’

“These are the things we take for granted. I have to leave an air freshener in my bathroom because my bathroom stinks because I can’t flush the toilet. Why am I living like this?

“I understand there was a storm, I completely understand it, but I’ve had enough.”

Ms Butterfield said that the other houses in her area appear to have power, which only adds to the frustration.

“When the two storms hit all you could hear was generators – now you hear nothing but silence.”

Belco spokeswoman Susan McGrath said that it was not unusual at this stage of the operation for a few individual properties to be without power even though surrounding properties having been reconnected.

The electric company must focus on getting the main circuits back, the large branch lines, the smaller branch lines and then small pockets of customers.

“We appreciate how difficult the aftermath of Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gonzalo has been for many people on the Island, and particularly for those customers who were still awaiting power restoration after Tropical Storm Fay, when Gonzalo struck.

“Certainly, living without power for lighting, refrigeration and all of the other conveniences that we rely on is very difficult, and our hearts go out to these people.

“This customer [Ms Butterfield] pointed out that while her area had power restored several days ago, she and her neighbour did not.

“This does happen during restoration, as crews work to get large numbers of customers on.

“If they find that they can restore power to an area, but there is considerable work required to deliver power to two or three customers in that area, the crews will isolate those customers and return later to finish the work.

“In this case, restoring power to this customer and her neighbour will require crews to put up several spans of low-voltage [LV] cable, which takes time.”

Belco confirmed that a broken transformer that serves Ms Butterfield was removed and that a new transformer will be installed when the new LV lines are strung.

“At this point in the Hurricane Gonzalo restoration process, all of the main circuits and large branch lines have been restored,” Ms McGrath added.

“We are now working to restore power to small pockets of customers and individual customers. We are still endeavouring to give priority to the remaining Fay customers, with fewer than 100 Fay customers still without power.

“Our target is to have power restored to all customers by early in the weekend. Belco will continue the restoration process until all customers impacted by the two storms have power, but we are gradually transitioning to a more normal operating regime.

“By Monday, we expect to be operating according to normal procedures, rather than in Incident Command mode.”