Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Children in Port Royal flying their kites on the beach yesterday.

Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd (JPS) is warning kite lovers to be wary of electrical wires as the activity intensifies throughout the Easter holiday.

Ruthlyn Johnson, JPS' corporate communications officer, is reminding Jamaicans that power outages can be caused if kites become tangled with the company's power lines.

Portmore blackout

Johnson said the company's investigations have determined that a blackout in a section of Portmore, St Catherine, less than three weeks ago, was the result of a kite tail getting caught on a JPS wire.

"Fly kites in wide, open spaces, away from power lines," she advised.

Since this year, Portmore, and other communities acros the island, have experienced power outages as a result of unsafe kite flying practices, Johnson said.

She suggested the incidents might have resulted from the lack of space for kite-flying within the fastest-growing community in the island.

Along with blackouts, getting kite lines tangled with electrical wires can lead to the electrocution of kite flyers.

Kites with large surface areas or a powerful lift can also pull kite flyers off the ground or drag them into stationary objects.

Johnson cautioned that if kites become tangled with power lines, they should not be pulled down. Instead, the JPS should be contacted for safe retrieval of the toy.

Desmond Morgan, organiser of the St Ann Kite Festival, planned for Seville Heritage Park this Easter Monday, said kite flying is associated with the Easter season on the north coast.

"Ever since I was born, I know of kite flying during Easter. I think that is so because it's usually windy at this time of the year," said Morgan.

Attracting thousands of spectators annually, the five-year-old Easter Monday festival is regarded as one of the most-anticipated kite shows of the year. Morgan said kite lovers should not worry about their kites getting tangled with power lines at the festival.

"The venue is a big, open lot. We never had that problem," he said.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com

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The following are scheduled kite festivals for the Easter season: