SIXTY-SIX days after Typhoon Odette (Rai) struck Cebu, Visayan Electric Company reported on Sunday, Feb. 20, that it had already restored power to 98 percent or 463,386 of its affected 474,182 customers.

The power distributor only has to restore electricity to its 10,796 customers scattered in its franchise area, which comprises the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga, and the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla and San Fernando.

Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas Jr. said in a Feb. 18 Facebook post that the Visayan Electric had reenergized 98 percent of its customers in the city, which has 21 barangays.

Despite delays in its restoration efforts, Gullas said his office has been monitoring and coordinating with Visayan Electric, and he said he’s grateful to the power distributor and its crew.

Visayan Electric started repairing poles and power lines a day after the onslaught of the typhoon, which devastated parts of central and southern Cebu on Thursday evening, Dec. 16, 2021. Ten days later, the power distributor promised to fully restore power in its franchise area by Jan. 31. But it failed to do so.

In a statement issued early this month, Visayan Electric said “energization is taking time in some parts of the franchise because of the magnitude of the damage to the utility’s lines, poles and transformers.”

Visayan Electric president and chief operating officer Raul Lucero said they “saw the reality of the destruction” when they started to work on the lateral lines in the interior parts of their franchise area.

The power outage also affected the services of telecommunication companies and water distributors.