Here’s WAPA’s September 27 power and potable water restoration update following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
ELECTRIC SYSTEM
- WAPA began limited hours of operation at the St. Croix Customer Service office at Sunny Isle Wednesday. The office will be open each weekday day from 12 noon – 3:30 pm. These hours may be adjusted based on the curfew. Customer service hours on St. Thomas and St. John are suspended pending a relocation of offices. The pay online option is available via the WAPA web site: www.viwapa.vi.
- Emergency call centers on St. Thomas & St. Croix will operate on a 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. schedule. The call centers are the primary means by which customers can advise the Authority of isolated service interruptions once crews have carried out restoration work. The call center operating hours will be adjusted as restoration into neighborhoods and communities takes shape. To contact the Emergency Call Center on St. Croix, call 340-773-0150, and on St. Thomas – St. John the call center’s telephone number is 340-774-1424.
- Work continued on St. Croix Wednesday to restore service to additional portions of downtown Christiansted and Frederiksted. It is anticipated that service will be restored to customers on Church and Company Streets by the end of the week. Replacement poles were planted on the roadway headed to the Frederiksted post office with clean-up crews working in the Frederiksted parking lot area and also on the roadway headed to the island’s east end.
- On St. Thomas, crews continue to work on Feeders 6A, 7A, 8A and 9A. Restoration work took place Wednesday on a portion of Feeder 7B in Estate Thomas. In addition, work was done on Feeder 6B in preparation for energizing the Alexander Farrelly Justice Center and the Ron de Lugo Federal Building by weekend. Crews continued to work on Feeder 6A heading towards UVI. This work included planting poles and carrying out repairs to restore service to the Gladys Abraham Elementary School. Reconstruction of a transmission feeder towards Donoe and eventually to the Tutu substation is underway. Work on Feeder 7A is focused on bringing electrical service to Banco Popular, Scotiabank and nearby businesses on Harwood Highway.
- St. John crews are working in the Cruz Bay area planting new poles from the roundabout toward the Myrah Keating Smith Health Clinic.
- WAPA continues to work jointly with Viya, the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, and the Department of Public Works on a clean-up initiative across the territory. Over the next several days, crews from all agencies will work to facilitate WMA access to the Mon Bijou and Concordia bin sites as well as access to the LBJ pump station on St. Croix. WMA is also seeking assistance in gaining access to the Vessup Bay pump station on St. Thomas’ east end.
- Customers are reminded of their responsibility to ensure their meter base and weather head is ready to have electrical service restored following the hurricanes. WAPA is not responsible for, and cannot carry out repairs to weather heads and meter bases.
POTABLE WATER SYSTEM
- Rebuilding of additional water storage continues. There are four days of water storage on St. John and three days on St. Thomas. On St. John, water service is available throughout Cruz Bay.
- Potable water service on St. Thomas was restored to Government Hill and Blackbeard’s Hill on Wednesday. WAPA is working to re-energize the Bergs Home pump station to resume service in upper Hospital Ground. As electrical service is restored to other pump stations, areas including Savan, Altona and the Contant Knolls housing community will experience a resumption of potable water service.
- On St. Croix, storage at Richmond water tank increased to 7.4 million gallons, a three-day supply. The Contentment, Richmond and Concordia pump stations are on line. Water service is slowly expanding throughout the town of Frederiksted as the system becomes pressurized. Water crews are surveying and repairing leaks as they are discovered on the system. The entire St. Croix water distribution system is expected to be fully pressurized shortly.
Tags: hurricane recovery, irma and maria, updates, usvi, virgin islands water and power authority