Hurricane Omar - 17 hours and counting

Is the Cyril King airport open? I am trying to get home after a month off island.

I understand that the airport is open -- a friend was supposed to have a flight there today, although she cancelled it; we now hear Cape Air is back on schedule, at least as of this afternoon.

Is there still a curfew until 2PM or has it been lifted?

East End of STX hit pretty hard.
Trees still have leaves, but power lines down on North shore road.
No WAPA power out east.
No Cell service out east.
Phone lines are working!

Lots of down trees all over the island.
Curfew still in effect, until 11am on STT, don't know about STX.

Hey, my cable isn't working! Nor is my cell!

For those looking for information on St Croix- I believe there is no power island wide. WAPA said they didn't have phone there either. Be patient. I believe that the rains were the problem, not hurricane or tropical force winds.

Billd: The curfew is still in effect, so no drive around reports. But I heard someone on the radio say that the roads are pretty treacherous.

I'm fine here at STX. My innovative DSl stayed up throughout so I was online for the whole storm, amazing. Power is still gone, my basement got flooded (powered up my little 2 stroke $120 generator for the wet vac and we knocked that out this morning) and my yard is a bit messy. Lost a fresh bunch of bananas that were forming as my banana trees collapsed. My Noni trees got uprooted and my cactus are all smashed. Other than that we are ok.

Sean

Curfew still in effect until 2 p.m. on STJ.

I haven't heard from my property manager on Water Island yet this morning. She called last night just before the prez debate and said things were calm wind-wise but lots and lots of rain. RockyDock? You out there? How's Water Island?

FL Barrier Islander ,

Heard 2/3 of Water Island is without power, other than that I believe all is well.

Tippi

Thanks Tippi!

Sean and Linda--

Please keep us updated on what you know about what's going on or has happened on St. Croix! All of us stuck stateside are dying to know. I've gone on message boards until late last night and can't find out much news other than the power plant shut down and Hovensa mostly shut down. Hopefully, even though it was a major blow, you came out of it ok!

Paula

i just spoke with 2 people in la grande princesse area (stx) and they reported that things are in pretty good shape. a few trees down, and of course the electric out, but cell service back on in that area. one had walked downtown to check on things, and there were a few boats washed up against the boardwalk in the watergut area, but things generally pretty good. she didnt check out the whole boardwalk, so don't know about the rest of it.

From Condo Row-
At Colony Cove, we had internet the whole time, but lost power around 9 p.m. as well as AT&T. Sprint seemed to be fine for the duration. Still on the genny this morning and the property took some beating. We lost one coconut palm on the beach and D bldg had moderate exterior damage. We lost quite a few boards on the galleries. Some of the wooden fencing is down and the top half of the avocado tree went away. Minor water damage inside some of the condos, but manageable. The pool now has most of the beach in it so that'll take a while to straighten out. Management and maintenance is on site and surveying the damage as well as some of the staff who are busy cleaning things up. All of the in-progress construction came through unscathed and the construction materials were ok as well. Everyone here is lighthearted and the drinking has commenced! I'll post some photos later today. Hope everyone else made it through ok.
Jeff

how strong was the wind on the north side of STT?

East End of STX is a mess. Lots of trees down. Lots of poles down. We probably won't have power for a week(s). Boats at STX yacht club sunk or on the beach, dock all mashed up. Fallen rock and some mudslides. Winds were @85 mph sustained and 100mph gusts.
Everyone. Help your neighbor!

Wind on the north side of STT was minor. I woke up around ~12:30 am and the winds were gusting but I doubt that the wind speed was more than 40 or 50 mph (if that high) and that didn't last for long.

There are some leaves blown around but in general the foliage is intact. Lots of rock rubble washed down onto roads. A few trees and plants that have tilted down when they were on inclines. I haven't driven around the island, but here in the Mahogany Run area things look good.

I had minor water intrusion here and there, but that happens with ordinary blowing rains too.

My power was out until noon, although the other condos on my street had power. Feeder 7C was down. WAPA restored power to 7C by hooking it temporarily into 7B. Guess the power will be out briefly when they fix 7C and switch it back. I'm just astonished that the power is already back on 🙂

On St. Thomas...

It was still raining early this morning but cleared up, and then again a bit more rain.

Raining over Charlotte Amalie Harbor

Charlotte Amalie with Break in Rainfall

On driving around the island main roads were fine; no build up of rocks, not even lots of leaves. Several public works trucks out and about surveying.

Only saw one fallen electric/telephone pole in the Bolongo Bay/Watergate Area. The road was closed and it was being worked on.

Workers on Fallen Lines

Guts were doing their job, weren't overflowing any that was noticed. The gut in Bovoni apparently was quite full and there was some flooding on the roads there but it appeared to be draining well.

Bovoni Gut - Water Under the Bridge to Nowhere

Some roads had pools of water.

Wet Roads

The ocean/beaches in some areas seemed more murky than others, mostly due to run off.

bnsilly on the Vacation board had asked about the water - Usually takes a few days for it to settle down. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources monitors water quality at beaches all year. Sometimes with increased run off they will report that the water quality is not good for swimming and then report when it is. When they conduct their post-Omar beach water testing it will be on their websites' notice page at: http://www.dpnr.gov.vi/notices.htm.

Mandahl Bay, looking like it always does.

Trees have their leaves and the forest looks lush as usual.

View from Skyline Drive.

Some folks were taking down their shutters on businesses and homes. Havensight shops were boarded up. Red Hook shops and restaurants boarded up or closed. A couple places had signs up that they may open later today or tomorrow morning.

We were very lucky and are thankful.

Hoping for the best with all of you on St. Croix!!

--Islander

let me tell you we were lucky in STT this was no more than a strong strom at best nothing like other hurricanes that i have witness in Peterborg we lost power at 1:00am i really don't know when we got it back but my generator is off i am feeding from wapa.

Many thanks to Rockydock who posted information about Water Island on Water Island Civic Association web site
http://www.waterislandwica.com/HurricaneOmar

Hello All,
I have been watching the conversations on the board for a few days now. I had recently come back from a cruise and fell in LOVE with St. Thomas. I mean I just knew this is where I am supposed to be especially since when I got back home to California, I felt like I came back to hell. Everything was wrong…off you know?

Saying all that, I started doing some intense research for moving to St. Thomas and believe me I am a coming. But I have to say that after reading the conversations on the board...it is like you are already my neighbors. I've learned so much. And now reading about your preparations and concerns for Omar and how you all are sharing information and notes and offering friendship and assistances...my God it’s so suspenseful like I am watching a television series. Will you all make it through safety, will everyone be okay? Even here way on the west coast, I worry...I'm concern I am hopeful and I will pray for all of you to make it through Omar. And believe me I will be watching the board to make sure you all do.

Wow...so this may sound totally weird. But this only strengthens my belief that I am to move to St Thomas, VI. It is as clear as it gets. I can’t wait to move there.Please everyone be safe and harm free.

Nothing but love...your future neighbor
Michelle

Has any power been restored on St Croix? There was a story in the Source (don't know if it was from early this am,tho) that said WAPA had lost their generating system and had experts working on restoring it, but that it was a ''perplexing problem". Yet someone else said Caravelle Hotel had power in Christiansted this afternoon. Is there any power at all?

We have power in the Christiansted area but Beeston Hill is dark.... Richmond appears to have lights too... from what we can see from here.

Just got the current back in St. Croix Herman Hill Catherine's Rest!! Bravo wapa men

South Shore drive closed as of 12:30 pm with at least 5 electric poles down. Maybe cleared by now?

We dodged a bullet!

Thanks for the update Jules and Islander.

Glad to read so many have weathered the storm and remain in good health. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery and getting life in paradise back to normal once more. Let me know if I can help.