“We are working on restoring tension to the system”explains Friday October 25 to franceinfo Xavier Lefort, the prefect of Guadeloupe, while the archipelago is still in a power cut situation, “a blackout situation takes time, it takes between 4, 6 and 7 hours to put the system back into operation since electricity must gradually be reinjected, this cannot be done by pressing a button” .
“The complete shutdown of the power plant, which represents approximately 50 to 60% of the means of production, led to the total collapse of the electrical system of the archipelago, the other means of electricity production fell”explains the prefect, “I condemn with the greatest firmness what is an act of sabotage and an act which endangers an entire population by depriving it of electricity”.
Since 8:45 a.m. Friday morning, Guadeloupe time, the operational center has been active around the prefect. “The police, the gendarmerie, the firefighters, the regional health agency, the telephone operators, the Samu, and obviously EDF” to ensure the safety of people, he explains.
It was necessary to work according to a precise order of priority: “At present, health establishments, particularly the university hospital, are on generators, so patients are not affected”details Xavier Lefort, “and we pay great attention, with the regional health agency, to patients at high vital risk (PHRV) who are at home, on a respirator, on a medical bed, in order to possibly be able to repatriate them.”
The prefect then “issued a requisition order for striking personnel to order them to return to work”, “a serious, heavy and rare act to allow the plant to return to normal operation”explains the prefect of Guadeloupe, “we hope that we will have a return to not normal but degraded functioning by the end of the afternoon [dans la nuit en Hexagone]”.
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