St. Croix Curfew Now 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m.; Mercy Mission Cruise Ship Arrives On St. Croix Friday

ST. CROIX — Governor Kenneth Mapp during his Tuesday evening press briefing at Government House, announced a change in curfew hours for both the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts, which Mr. Mapp said was needed so that residents could conduct important business. The change comes just one day after the governor announced a “permanent”, 4:00 p.m. to 12 noon curfew for St. Croix, which he suggested at his Monday press briefing would have held until the island’s roads were properly cleared.

The curfew for St. Croix is now 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m., which means St. Croix residents now have between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. to conduct their business. The curfew in the St. Thomas-St. John District is now 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., giving residents there between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. to conduct their business.

Mr.  Mapp also announced that the mercy cruise ship will arrive on St. Croix on Friday, and will accommodate 1,000 passengers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with another 1,000 to be picked up in Puerto Rico. Of the 1,000 USVI passengers, 750 will be from St. Croix, 200 from St. John, and 50 from St. Thomas. Of the 750 St. Croix passengers, 400 fall under what the governor called an “urgent category,” and all 400 of them have already been registered. This leaves 350 open seats on the cruise ship as of Tuesday night for persons looking to leave the territory from St. Croix. On St. John, there were 200 seats as of Tuesday night. There were 50 seats on St. Thomas, but those have already been taken, according to the governor.

From St. Croix, the cruise ship head to St. Thomas and leaves that the island on Saturday. Mercy mission passengers will be dropped off in Fort Lauderdale, Florida two days after leaving St. Thomas.

Mr. Mapp gave a new number that interested persons should call to be listed, which is 772-713-6801 (the governor on Tuesday gave the wrong area code, so we’ve updated this post to reflect the correct information on Sept. 28, 2017). Interested individuals are to call this number between the hours of  9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. only to be listed. For registration, you must visit one of the following visitor centers on Wednesday:

• St. Croix: Cotton Valley Fire Station, VI Cardiac Center at the Juan F. Luis Hospital, and the Ann E. Abramson Pier Center in Frederiksted.
• St. John: Powell Park.

Interested parties must be present at the visitor centers from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Additionally, only 100 hundred persons will be registered at each center.

The governor stressed that persons leaving the territory on mercy missions should ascertain that they have accommodations at their destination. Mr. Mapp said at least three persons who left the territory on mercy flights made contact with the government of the Virgin Islands seeking help, after they were not welcomed at the homes they left the territory for.

“You can’t show up to people’s doorsteps with a bundle and believe that people are going to welcome you with open arms,” the governor said, adding, “We don’t have the resources in the government to bail out people.” Mr. Mapp said the government was able to contact shelters in the respective U.S. jurisdictions where at least two of those persons were, and established that they had come from a disaster area, which cleared the way for the shelters to provide clothing and food for a few days. “You’ve got a lot of work to do when taking mercy missions,” the governor said.

Here are some other important updates from today’s press briefing:

1. There will be no distribution of meals on Wednesday
2. According to Adjutant General of the VI National Guard, Deborah Howell, 4,607 meals were distributed on St. Thomas today, and 13,983 on St. Croix.
3. Shelter is being provided for a over 500 displaced residents territory-wide, with 278 on St. Croix and 258 on St. Thomas, according to the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency Director, Mona Barnes.
4. If your home is in need of a Blue Roof, call 1-888-766-3258. The number was giving some problems, but those issues were fixed, according to William Vogel, federal coordinating officer of FEMA Region II.
5. The Dept. of Property and Procurement continues to sign contracts with waste haulers for the territory’s cleanup process. According to Mr. Mapp, citing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there are 750,000 cubic yards of debris on St. Croix, and 755,000 cubic yards of debris on St. Thomas, left by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Estimates for St. John and Water Island were being assessed.
6. 319 guardsmen from the Puerto Rico National Guard who were in the territory aiding with the recovery effort left for PR today, which was badly mangled by Hurricane Maria.
7. Private schools may conduct classes within the curfew hours in both the St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix districts, according to the governor.
   V.I.P.D. Commissioner Delroy Richards reported that a shooting incident in the Walter I.M. Hodge Pavilion left a 20-year-old man dead. The incident occurred “early last evening,” according to the commissioner. He said the 911 emergency call center received reports of shots being fired in the housing community, and upon officers’ arrival to the scene, the male victim — whose identity the commissioner did not reveal — was found with a gunshot wound to the lower abdomen. Multiple attempts to revive him failed, Mr. Richards said. The V.I.P.D. has a suspect it’s pursuing as well as a motive for the homicide. Mr. Richards also reported multiple other incidents on the island of St. Thomas, some including minors.
8. The governor spoke with Joe York, president of AT&T Florida, Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands today, and was pleased with the conversation. Mr. York gave an “excellent” report on the communication company’s cellphone service restoration efforts following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the territory, with Mr. York stating that AT&T was prepared to ship in additional microwaves to the Virgin Islands to bring cellphone reception to an optimum. During the last 24 to 35 hours, multiple AT&T technicians arrived in the territory and have been assessing the extent of the damage caused by the storms. As compensation for the unreliable service AT&T customers have experienced after the hurricanes, the company will credit customers from the time service became intermittent up until the time when the problem is fixed, the governor said.