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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Rain to Continue Through Friday

Pictured is Coral Bay, turning brown from the sediment washing down the hill.Wednesday’s foul weather caused havoc across the territory, and National Weather Service meteorologist Shawn Rossi said that conditions aren’t going to improve until Saturday.
“It will be similar to today,” Rossi said, referring to Thursday.
Government House spokesman Jean Greaux said that Gov. John deJongh Jr. will decide by 6 a.m. Thursday whether public schools and the government will open.
On Wednesday, schools and the local government closed for the entire day, and phones went unanswered at many businesses. Several residents reported on what they saw.
“It’s wild. The waves are breaking over the pier and over the wall,” St. Croix resident Diane Aitken said from Frederiksted.
She said the waves were about six to eight feet high.
On St. Thomas, Hull Bay Road had a major mudslide west of E&M Grocery and Brookman Road was closed to traffic at Nadir due to debris in the road, reports indicated. However, workers were out clearing the roads as of noon Wednesday.
Robin Clair, manager of Estate Zootevaal resort near Coral Bay, St. John, said that her office was filled with a quarter inch of mud.
“The mud just came in and slid through the office. It’s like a little chocolate coating on the floor,” Clair said.
On St. Croix, flooding was a serious issue at Pelican Cove.According to a press release from Government House, St. Thomas and St. John experienced numerous land and mudslides. And crews from the V.I. Water and Power Authority are also working to restore electrical power in almost a dozen isolated areas across the territory.
Power was an issue across the territory.
At 5 p.m., WAPA spokesman Cassandra Dunn outlined where things stood. On St. Croix, she said crews were working Wednesday night in Orange Grove (West), LBJ Gardens, Mt. Pellier-West, Betsy Jewel, Grove Place, La Reine, Castle Coakley, Whim, Williams Delight, Two Williams, Mt. Pleasant, Shoys, La Grange, Butler Bay, Spring Garden, Northside, Nicholas, Frederickshaab, Wheel Of Fortune, Little Princess Hill, St. John, Grange Hill, Brookshill, Turner Hole, New Works, Bethlehem, and Mon Bijou.
“We have a lot of outages in isolated areas,” Dunn said.
On St. Thomas, Dunn said crews were wrapping up work on the East End and heading for the North Side.
“We anticipate completing work this evening,” she said.
On St. Thomas, flooding at Havensight made for especially slow going.The Coral Bay area of St. John had major problems because of a landslide along Centerline Road. Dunn said that WAPA crews had to replace two broken poles. As of 5 p.m., she said that WAPA had only five customers on St. John without power.
On St. Croix, U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews searched Wednesday for a missing diver in waters near Buck Island Reef National Monument.
A Coast Guard press release indicated that the diver was reportedly a police officer who went scuba diving with two friends aboard a recreational vessel (See Source story, "Coast Guard Officials Say Missing Diver Is VIPD Officer").
Starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, all classes at the University of the Virgin Islands St. Croix campus were cancelled. The library was also closed. However, St. Thomas classes remained on schedule and the Paiewonsky Library was open. Videoconference classes that take place between the St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses were also cancelled starting at 4 p.m.
UVI employees on both campuses are expected to report for work Thursday at their regularly scheduled time. UVI students, faculty and staff are asked to monitor radio broadcasts, the UVI website and the UVI Emergency Hotlines for updates. The number on St. Thomas is 693-1016. The number on St. Croix is 692-4168.
Rossi said that residents should expect more rainy and windy conditions overnight into Thursday and all day Thursday as Subtropical Storm Otto and its vast swath of bad weather makes its way out of the area.
“There’s a very large trail of moisture feeding into the system,” Rossi said.
The territory remains on a flash flood watch until 6 p.m. Thursday.
The storm, which at 5 a.m. was designated a subtropical depression, got its name at the 5 p.m. update. Rossi explained that a subtropical system differs from a tropical system because it has different upper level features and a larger wind field.
He expects a “dryer spot” of air to hit the region by Saturday morning, which will return the territory to its normal weather pattern.
Rossi said that St. Croix had a total of 4.86 inches of rain between midnight Tuesday and 5 p.m. Wednesday. The St. Thomas total reached 8.12 inches for the same period.
At Weather Station Zephyr, located at Ajax Peak, St. John, a total of 5.58 inches of rain fell Tuesday and until 5 p.m. Wednesday. Wind gusts hit a peak of 45 mph at 9 a.m. Wednesday and 44 mph at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
As of the 5 p.m. update, Otto’s winds stood at 60 mph. The storm was moving north, with the center located about 215 miles northeast of Grand Turk Island.

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