ST. CROIX -- During his Monday evening press briefing, Governor Kenneth Mapp altered the territory-wide curfew to the hours of 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., meaning residents now have between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. to conduct their affairs. The governor said the change was to make allowance for residents eager to watch the World Series, many of whom would predictably watch the games at restaurants with big screens. Mr. Mapp's decision to change the curfew comes five days following the last change, when the governor and Police Commissioner Delroy Richards said the roads were too dark to allow additional time.
Following the end of the World Series on November 1, the curfew will be altered to an earlier time on November 3. During the World Series games, police officers will saturate the roadways at nights to ensure that residents are traveling safe, Mr. Mapp said.
Mr. Mapp along with a USVI delegation that he will organize, will visit the nation's capital on November 7 and 8. While there, the governor will make his pitch to Congress on why the territory needs all the assistance it can get. The delegation will also meet with congressional leaders and members of President Donald Trump's cabinet.
"It's not about getting a handout, it's about getting help and it's about showing who we are" as U.S. Virgin Islanders, Mr. Mapp said. The governor has requested $5.5 billion in federal funds to help the territory rebuild after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, a number he said on Monday could change as the assessment of the storms' impact on the USVI continues.
Noting that the territory's hospitals were badly damaged by the hurricanes, a comment the governor has made multiple times, Mr. Mapp said he recently held a work session with the CEOs of the Schneider Regional Medical Center and the Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center, out of which a decision was made to evacuate the remaining patients in need of critical care to off-island medical institutions. Mr. Mapp said the local hospitals could no longer provide adequate medical care. And he advised the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the work session and the decision to remove the remaining critically ill patients from those facilities.
"They cannot stay there," Mr. Mapp added. He said there were 73 patients at the hospitals as of Monday.
The decision to evacuate the remaining patients will impact the hospitals' operations. The governor said employees will have to be laid off because of the removal of patients and hence the diminishing of funds.
As a supplement until the hospitals are either repaired or rebuilt, the U.S. Department of Defense, through FEMA, has been installing mobile medical units at both hospitals that Mr. Mapp said will be in the territory as long as they're needed. "Three, four, five years," he said.
But the mobile units will not be ready until Dec. 10, and Mr. Mapp did not say whether the hospitals would remain open before then.
Other important details from the meeting:
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