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Residents territory-wide have been asking for more rain — not the kind accompanied by hurricane-force winds that wreaks havoc on communities — but the type that pours for hours, filling cisterns and watering sun-beaten farms.
Tropical Storm Laura, which drenched the USVI for all of Saturday, did just that.
The rain started during the wee hours of Saturday and continued into the afternoon, pausing at times but mostly holding steady. Some residents reported strong winds and recorded their experiences live on social media. The National Hurricane Center had said the territory would see winds of up to 40 miles per hour from Laura, and higher gusts.
The V.I. Water and Power Authority reported outages in both districts. In the STT-STJ District, outages were reported on Feeder 7E, Feeder 7A and Feeder 9C. On St. Croix an electrical service interruption occurred on Feeder 9B.
"The electric grids will be impacted until winds subside. Gusty winds are causing primary service lines to make contact; there is also impact by vegetation overgrowth and by broken limbs and branches coming to rest on the lines," WAPA said.
Limetree Bay reported what it said was a failure of one of its storm-water handling pumps due to heavy rainfall. "This resulted in an overflow from our contained storm-water system into an open containment pond," Limetree said. "The overflow contained quantities of oil along with the storm water. The oil is contained in the holding pond but is resulting in odors."
The company later said cleanup was continuing and that no oil escaped beyond its permanent boom. "Cleanup efforts within the facility will continue until all oil is recovered," Limetree said.
VITEMA Director Darryl Jaschen will provide the territory with an update on the storm's impact to the USVI at 8:00 a.m. today. Watch it live on VIC's Facebook platform.
