ST. CROIX — A generator at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport that employees say has been giving problems for a long time, failed to switch on following the island-wide blackout on St. Croix yesterday afternoon.
The blackout, which started shortly before 3:00 p.m., left all of St. Croix without power. However, critical government facilities are expected to immediately switch to their generators to keep disruption at a minimum. Even so, the airport on St. Croix — one of the most indelible operations of any society — was handicapped yesterday, causing Customs to temporarily shutdown and flights to be delayed. The Consortium was contacted about the situation at the airport at 4:23 p.m. Wednesday; the island-wide blackout started shortly before 3:00 p.m., according to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.
Monifa Braithwaite, Virgin Islands Port Authority public relations officer, acknowledged the problem and said V.I.P.A. maintenance personnel were able to eventually fix the generator. “There was an island-wide outage on St. Croix today and our terminal’s generator did have some problems. Our maintenance staff was able to get the generator running and power to the terminal was restored,” Ms. Braithwaite said in a statement late Wednesday.
Pictures sent to this publication shows a dark airport terminal, seen above, along with the CAT-branded generator (see feature image).
WAPA said in a release that a tripped generating unit at the Estate Richmond Power Plant led to all feeders falling off-line. The blackout also led to potable water customers in certain areas of the island experiencing low pressure. WAPA said service restoration began at 4:47 p.m. and full restoration was achieved at 5:41 p.m.
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