St. Croix was quiet Tuesday, with schools, government and many businesses closed the day after being brushed by the fringes of Hurricane Earl. To everyone’s relief, damage was very slight.
Power returned to parts of the island Monday evening, but large swaths remained without power as late as 5 p.m. Tuesday, especially on the West End of the island.
Landline and cellular phone service came and went throughout the day and internet accessibility was sporadic, varying by provider.
Streams of water that flowed brown and muddy in swales and guts still gurgled steadily Tuesday, but the water began to run clear. Lots of small branches and a veritable carpet of green leaves covered some smaller roads, but few trees or large limbs toppled, and the main roads were all more or less free of debris.
WAPA pole trucks could be seen out and about. On the main highways, no poles seemed to be down, not even on the South Shore, where hundreds of poles snapped during Hurricane Omar, two years ago.
Traffic was light throughout the day, which may have improved road safety, as more traffic lights were out or blinking than were actually working Tuesday. Aside from some minor flooding and several damaged recreational vessels, the toll was minimal.
While damage on St. Croix was fairly slight, at least four recreational vessels were torn free from their moorings. Tuesday afternoon, the Johanna Augusta II out of Wilmington, Del., lay on the rocks in Frederiksted, with a massive hole in the hull. Just a few yards away, a double-decker fishing vessel, registered in Puerto Rico, rested on the rocks by the seawall, battered but relatively whole.
Out east near Cramers Park, a two-masted sailing vessel with the name "Liberty" barely discernible on the stern, foundered heedlessly against the reef. And in Christiansted during the storm, the catamaran Kindred Spirit broke loose, banging against the boardwalk until it was hauled to safety.
With a sense of relief palpable in the air, and not much productive work possible for those not directly working on fixing power and utilities, the whole of St. Croix had a peaceful, holiday feeling. La Reine Chicken Shack’s parking lot was filled past overflowing, and the smell of the charcoal they use to roast their inimitable fowl traveled on the breeze.
Dozens of families relaxed in the shade, listening to salsa over the loudspeakers and wiling away the afternoon with a little barbecue and liming.
Steel panels were still bolted over most of the windows and doors of K-Mart West in Sunshine Mall, but the store was open and customers were coming and going through a narrow opening in the metal sheathing as workers cleaned up and began returning the mall to normal.
This time St. Croix was lucky, but the same people breathing a sigh of relief today are fully aware a new storm could come at any time.
"This was nothing," said a man relaxing at Dorsch Beach Tuesday afternoon, who declined to give his name. "This was just a rehearsal, a day off from school. You wait until a real storm hits."
