Parts of Labuan plunge into darkness for over 4 hours

LABUAN: Parts of Labuan were plunged into darkness for more than 4 hours, starting from 4pm Monday, due to an unscheduled power disruption.

Numerous establishments along Jalan Dahlia were affected, with hotels, restaurants, and shops forced to halt operations.

Among those hit hardest were businesses relying on refrigerated storage, such as the Labuan containerised port, where reefer container owners feared the loss of their frozen goods.

Expressing concern over the situation, Megah Port Management Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, Idjal Tahir, highlighted the significant impact of the prolonged power disruption on temperature sensitive cargo.

“The prolonged power disruption would adversely affect frozen goods stored in the reefer, which is designed to store temperature-sensitive cargo at precise temperatures,” he said to Bernama when contacted Tuesday.

Local business owners echoed these sentiments, lamenting the financial losses incurred during the outage.

Roger Lee, 59, proprietor of a business at Jalan Dahlia, shared his frustration, stating, “This is a family business, and undeniably, we incur losses for no business for several hours.

Lee described that the power supply failed to be restored until this morning, leading to prolonged closures.

“We thought the power supply was restored this morning, but when we opened the shop at 8 am, there was still no power supply,” he said.

When contacted, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) Labuan cited damage to the main cable as the cause of the disruption.

“Feeder Town 3/WLYH10 tripped, causing power disruption at Labuan Port and its surroundings, and repair works are still being carried out,” said a SESB officer.

The impact of the outage extended beyond commercial enterprises, affecting hospitality establishments including budget hotels.

“Guests staying at the hotel voiced their displeasure over the inconvenience caused by the power outage,” said a hotel staff.

Richard Otie, owner of an entertainment outlet, expressed dismay over the financial losses incurred due to the closure of his business for the entire duration of the outage.

“My business incurred losses, amounting to thousands of ringgit, as the business operation had to be closed the whole night,” lamented Otie.