The Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) will de­ploy a Mu­tu­al Aid team to Ja­maica to as­sist with pow­er restora­tion ef­forts fol­low­ing the dev­as­ta­tion caused by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties said the team is sched­uled to de­part to­day and will be for­mal­ly re­ceived by Bar­ry Shi­va Padarath, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Clyde El­der, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, and Shiv­an­na Sam, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, at the Air­port Diplo­mat­ic Lounge, Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

Ac­cord­ing to the min­istry, Padarath will of­fer words of en­cour­age­ment and sup­port to the team, recog­nis­ing their ded­i­ca­tion, com­mit­ment, and hard work as they as­sist Ja­maica in restor­ing es­sen­tial elec­tric­i­ty ser­vices.

Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa made land­fall in Ja­maica on Oc­to­ber 28 as a Cat­e­go­ry 5 storm, with sus­tained winds of around 185 mph. The death toll on the is­land has reached at least 32 peo­ple, though of­fi­cials said that num­ber may rise.