Nov. 1, 2001 – This weekend, the St. Croix Yacht Club will host the 2nd annual St. Croix Caribbean Invitational Match Race, pitting seven of the region's top skippers against one another in the one-on-one form of competition made popular by events such as the America's Cup and the Virgin Islands' own Marriott's Frenchman's Reef International Match Race.
Competing will be Frits Bus from Sint Maarten, Guy Eldridge from the British Virgin Islands, Robbie Ferron from Antigua, Michael Green from St. Lucia and three V.I. sailors — Fletcher Pitts from St. John, Chris Rosenberg from St. Thomas and Chris Schreiber from St. Croix.
The invitational race was open to one skipper from any one island who had qualified to represent that locale by winning a local yacht club competition.
Racing will be aboard the St. Croix club's fleet of Rhodes 19 sailboats with three-member crews. Each race, called a "flight," is between two boats and will last about 15 minutes. There will be about 20 races on Saturday.
The races will be sailed in Teague Bay on St. Croix's North Shore. On Saturday, the matches start at 9 a.m. and go until 5 p.m. On Sunday, they start at 9 a.m. and are expected to end around 2 p.m., with awards to be presented around 3 p.m.
The sailors will be racing in a round-robin format, ensuring that all skippers sail against each other at least once. Crews will be switching boats as well, so that no one vessel is considered to have an advantage, even though they are all technically the same design.
"Match racing is unique in that the racers are followed closely by umpires in boats who make penalty calls on the spot, thus eliminating frustrating waits after the races for protest hearings," Linda Bruton, St. Croix Yacht Club public relations person, noted. "The penalized boat must complete a penalty turn before finishing in order to clear the penalty."
Umpires are from different islands to ensure impartiality, she added.
"This type of competition provides a different challenge for the skippers, who often try to force their opponents into penalty situations," Bruton said. "This leads to many interesting two-boat duels and makes match racing more interesting as a spectator sport than normal fleet sailboat racing."
She said the public is invited to watch the races from the overlook above Teague Bay. "Bring folding chairs, an umbrella and some binoculars, and you'll have a pretty good view," she said.
Years ago, match racing used to be popular in St. Lucia. Recently, international umpire Henry Menin of St. Thomas has rekindled interest in the Caribbean. This weekend's race has attracted the interest of the International Sailing Federation, which plans to post the results on its web site.
For more information, call the St. Croix Yacht Club at 773-9531.
P.R. ORCHESTRA RETURNING TO REICHHOLD SATURDAY
Oct. 30, 2001 – There's no doubt "the third time will be the charm" when the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra performs in concert Saturday night at the Reichhold Center for the Arts. "No doubt" because its visits last year and the year before were crowd pleasers played to a full house.
That's in no small part because the appearance of an 85-member symphony orchestra is an exceptional event on an island where even a chamber ensemble has to import its strings. But it's also because Puerto Rico's government-supported, full-time professional orchestra is highly regarded in circles that extend far beyond the Caribbean.
Two years ago, the Birch Forum co-sponsored the orchestra's first appearance on St. Thomas in two decades. Last November, it did the same, for a memorable evening in which the Territorial Court Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra joined the classical musicians onstage for the Overture from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville."
This third time, again co-sponsored by the Birch Forum, the orchestra will open with the Overture from Hector Berlioz' "Le Corsair" — that "impetuous, piratical, stormy, brilliant, pictorial" music of lordly, leaping premier danceurs. The second piece on the first half of the program is Johannes Brahms' well-known "Double" Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, featuring violinist Dara Burkholder and cellist Jesus Morales as guest soloists. Following the intermission, the program will conclude with Antonin Dvorak's tribute to America's Negro and Native American folk melodies, the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World").
To Cornelius Prior, president of the Birch Forum, one of the appeals of the program is the "magnificent contrast in musical styles" between the exuberance of "Le Corsair" and the lyrical romanticism of the "New World" symphony.
Another attraction for many will be an opportunity to see the orchestra's new music director, Guillermo Figueroa, one of the hottest baton properties around, in action. It was just in August that Figueroa became the first native Puerto Rican to hold that position, after having served as the orchestra's principal guest conductor. Three months earlier, he was named music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Meantime, he continues to call New York City home — where he lives with his wife and three daughters and is concertmaster of the New York City Ballet as well as one of the rotating concertmasters for the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Just a week ago, The New York Times profiled Figueroa in an article which quoted the maestro as saying that, for the foreseeable future, "I will be living on an airplane." He was in Albuquerque in September to open the symphony season and is commuting to conduct the Puerto Rico Symphony until mid-November, then heading to New York for a recording session and part of City Ballet's "Nutcracker" run, then will return to New Mexico in mid-December for a weekend, and so on and so on.
"It's easier to do than people think," he was quoted as saying. "Airports are calm, and there's so much increased security. Besides, there's nothing I can do about it."
As for the orchestra itself, it credibility is well established with St. Thomas audiences. Source reviewer Roger Lakins was hard pressed to find anything to complain about in last year's performance (he settled for a lack of program notes), writing: "the Puerto Rico Symphony has become a world-class orchestra with musically inspired leadership and absolutely first-class performers in all divisions."
Further, Lakins wrote, the orchestra's musicians collectively "have the silky quality of string tone. They have the purity of intonation. They have a brass section that can give you goosebumps. They have bassoons that make you close your eyes and wish you could lock that beautiful sound in your head to draw upon when needed in the future. What about the percussion? They're from Puerto Rico, for crying out loud. They can be so subtle that you wonder whether you really hear them or just feel them. They can also scare you like an earthquake … They have master teachers seated with their students who have become their colleagues, and they bring to life great music as a body with a real heart."
The orchestra was begun at the urging of legendary cellist Pablo Casals in 1957, the year the Casals Festival also made its debut. During its 48-week season, it performs for symphonic concerts, operas, ballets, and pops, community and children's concerts.
Saturday's program begins at 8 p.m. At $60 a pop, the covered-section seats are sold out, but tickets are available for $30 in the lower tiers of open seating and for $5 in the upper rows. To purchase tickets by charge card or to obtain information on ticket outlets, call the Reichhold box office at 693-1559 between 10 a.m and 4 p.m. To order tickets online or by printing out a form you can fax to the box office with credit-card information, visit the Reichhold Center web site. The site also has information about discount options available to season subscribers. Saturday's concert is the second of the season, and it's not too late to put together ticket packages.
That's in no small part because the appearance of an 85-member symphony orchestra is an exceptional event on an island where even a chamber ensemble has to import its strings. But it's also because Puerto Rico's government-supported, full-time professional orchestra is highly regarded in circles that extend far beyond the Caribbean.
Two years ago, the Birch Forum co-sponsored the orchestra's first appearance on St. Thomas in two decades. Last November, it did the same, for a memorable evening in which the Territorial Court Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra joined the classical musicians onstage for the Overture from Rossini's "The Barber of Seville."
This third time, again co-sponsored by the Birch Forum, the orchestra will open with the Overture from Hector Berlioz' "Le Corsair" — that "impetuous, piratical, stormy, brilliant, pictorial" music of lordly, leaping premier danceurs. The second piece on the first half of the program is Johannes Brahms' well-known "Double" Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, featuring violinist Dara Burkholder and cellist Jesus Morales as guest soloists. Following the intermission, the program will conclude with Antonin Dvorak's tribute to America's Negro and Native American folk melodies, the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World").
To Cornelius Prior, president of the Birch Forum, one of the appeals of the program is the "magnificent contrast in musical styles" between the exuberance of "Le Corsair" and the lyrical romanticism of the "New World" symphony.
Another attraction for many will be an opportunity to see the orchestra's new music director, Guillermo Figueroa, one of the hottest baton properties around, in action. It was just in August that Figueroa became the first native Puerto Rican to hold that position, after having served as the orchestra's principal guest conductor. Three months earlier, he was named music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Meantime, he continues to call New York City home — where he lives with his wife and three daughters and is concertmaster of the New York City Ballet as well as one of the rotating concertmasters for the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Just a week ago, The New York Times profiled Figueroa in an article which quoted the maestro as saying that, for the foreseeable future, "I will be living on an airplane." He was in Albuquerque in September to open the symphony season and is commuting to conduct the Puerto Rico Symphony until mid-November, then heading to New York for a recording session and part of City Ballet's "Nutcracker" run, then will return to New Mexico in mid-December for a weekend, and so on and so on.
"It's easier to do than people think," he was quoted as saying. "Airports are calm, and there's so much increased security. Besides, there's nothing I can do about it."
As for the orchestra itself, it credibility is well established with St. Thomas audiences. Source reviewer Roger Lakins was hard pressed to find anything to complain about in last year's performance (he settled for a lack of program notes), writing: "the Puerto Rico Symphony has become a world-class orchestra with musically inspired leadership and absolutely first-class performers in all divisions."
Further, Lakins wrote, the orchestra's musicians collectively "have the silky quality of string tone. They have the purity of intonation. They have a brass section that can give you goosebumps. They have bassoons that make you close your eyes and wish you could lock that beautiful sound in your head to draw upon when needed in the future. What about the percussion? They're from Puerto Rico, for crying out loud. They can be so subtle that you wonder whether you really hear them or just feel them. They can also scare you like an earthquake … They have master teachers seated with their students who have become their colleagues, and they bring to life great music as a body with a real heart."
The orchestra was begun at the urging of legendary cellist Pablo Casals in 1957, the year the Casals Festival also made its debut. During its 48-week season, it performs for symphonic concerts, operas, ballets, and pops, community and children's concerts.
Saturday's program begins at 8 p.m. At $60 a pop, the covered-section seats are sold out, but tickets are available for $30 in the lower tiers of open seating and for $5 in the upper rows. To purchase tickets by charge card or to obtain information on ticket outlets, call the Reichhold box office at 693-1559 between 10 a.m and 4 p.m. To order tickets online or by printing out a form you can fax to the box office with credit-card information, visit the Reichhold Center web site. The site also has information about discount options available to season subscribers. Saturday's concert is the second of the season, and it's not too late to put together ticket packages.
ROTARY CLUB OF ST. JOHN
The Rotary Club of St. John will hold its regular meeting at 12:30 p.m. at the Westin Resort's Beach Cafe on Friday, Nov. 2. It will be a working meeting for the Paul Harris Event. Committee members from the other clubs are asked to join.
ROTARY CLUB OF ST. JOHN
The Rotary Club of St. John will have a working meeting for the the Paul Harris Event this week at the Westin Resort's Beach Cafe. Committee members from the oter clubs are asked to join.
VIPA FIREFIGHTERS FACE RESTRAINING ORDER
Nov. 1, 2001 — Union representatives of V.I. Port Authority aircraft-rescue firefighters will be in Territorial Court on Friday regarding work slowdowns at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix last week.
The Port Authority is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sickout last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport.
The sickout delayed four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft-rescue training were called in to allow flights to land.
Airport firefighters, members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarers International Union, are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority that classifies them as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking because their work is crucial to public safety.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. Many firefighters apparently are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said the entry-level salary for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year, but after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564, compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government-operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
Friday morning's Territorial Court hearing is before Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
The Port Authority is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sickout last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport.
The sickout delayed four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft-rescue training were called in to allow flights to land.
Airport firefighters, members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarers International Union, are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority that classifies them as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking because their work is crucial to public safety.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. Many firefighters apparently are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said the entry-level salary for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year, but after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564, compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government-operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
Friday morning's Territorial Court hearing is before Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
VIPA FIREFIGHTERS FACE RESTRAINING ORDER
Nov. 1, 2001 — Union representatives of V.I. Port Authority aircraft rescue firefighters will be in Territorial Court Friday regarding work slow downs at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix last week.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
VIPA FIREFIGHTERS FACE RESTRAINING ORDER
Nov. 1, 2001 — Union representatives of V.I. Port Authority aircraft rescue firefighters will be in Territorial Court Friday regarding work slow downs at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix last week.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
VIPA FIREFIGHTERS FACE RESTRAINING ORDER
Nov. 1, 2001 — Union representatives of V.I. Port Authority aircraft rescue firefighters will be in Territorial Court Friday regarding work slow downs at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix last week.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
The Port Authority filed temporary restraining order documents to keep firefighters from staging further job actions following a sick-out last Friday by about 15 firefighters at the St. Croix airport. The sick-out forced the delay of four flights that morning. Firefighters from the V.I. Fire Services who had previous aircraft rescue training needed to be called in to fill the vacancies and allow flights to land.
The firefighters are members of the United Industrial Workers of the Seafarer’s International Union and are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Port Authority, which classifies the firefighters as Class III employees. That classification prohibits them from striking due to public safety issues.
Amos Peters, vice president of the UIW Caribbean region, who will represent the firefighters in court Friday, told the St. Croix Avis that the union and the Port Authority recently signed a new contract. But apparently, many of the firefighters are unhappy with its terms because they will be paid less than officers on the Port Authority’s newly formed police force.
Peters said entry level salaries for Port Authority firefighters is $22,500 a year. But he said that after one year of service the figure jumps to $26,000. For Port Authority police the starting salary is $27,753. After 20 years of service, a firefighter’s salary reaches $41,564 compared to a police officer’s $46,066.
Peters said the Port Authority firefighters will be paid on the same scale as firefighters in the government operated Fire Service through 2006. There are 30 Port Authority firefighters split between the St. Croix airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas.
The Territorial Court hearing is scheduled for Friday morning in the court of Judge Ishmael Meyers on St. Thomas.
AGENCIES PURSUE TSUNAMI AREA WARNING SYSTEM
Nov. 1, 2001 – Scientists at two seismic research organizations which have long tracked earthquake activity in the Caribbean agree that the recent "earthquake swarms" in the region are in the waning stages of a "standard foreshock-main shock-aftershock sequence."
Both agencies — the Seismic Research Unit in Trinidad and Tobago and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network — are in the midst of projects that will increase and enhance earthquake data-collecting capability in the region that includes the Virgin Islands.
John Shepherd, head of the Trinidad unit, was in the British Virgin Islands last week to confer with officials and to establish a seismograph station in Road Town, Tortola. The station became operational Friday, and over the next three days it recorded seven earthquakes from the zone north of the Virgin Islands. The maximum magnitude was 4.3 on the Richter Scale, according to the SRU site, and it's unlikely any of the tremors were felt on land.
An SRU report concludes, "The pattern continues to be that of a declining aftershock sequence following the magnitude 6.0 earthquake of Oct. 17."
Shepherd expects the SRU to set up stations in Virgin Gorda and Anegada shortly.
Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, network administrator for the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, agrees with Shepherd's assessment of "petering off" from the standard sequence. On Monday evening she said the "seismicity" had decreased in both magniture and frequency over the preceding several days.
The ongoing Project PROBES (for Puerto Rico Ocean Bottom Earthquake Survey), operating out of von Hillebrandt-Andrade's agency, is placing additional stations throughout the region. The additional data collection and analysis capabilities will enable the network "to better understand the thermal structure beneath Puerto Rico and help predict the degree of ground shaking."
PROBES represents the first time that land-based and ocean-bottom probes are providing earthquake data jointly. Land-based stations are housed in a shelter about the size of a closet. The ocean probes, dropped to the ocean floor with a subsurface buoy attached, contain a cluster of measuring instruments to detect the different types of waves, notably P-waves and S-waves, emanating from earthquakes. Data collection and transmission from both types of probes is automatic.
A St. Thomas station is in place at the residence of Russell Crowther at the top of Upper Bonne Resolution and communications are being fine-tuned, von Hillebrandt-Andrade said. A St. John station is also in place, and one will be set up on St. Croix shortly.
Technicians have some logistic problems to resolve. Crowther said two to three receivers will allow data from St. John and Anegada stations to be fed into the computer at the St. Thomas location. Puerto Rico Seismic Network staff can dial in to the computer and retrieve data.
Since the Trinidad unit shares data with the Puerto Rico Network, all of these new measuring stations will benefit the Virgin Islands location with improved data, analysis, and pinpointed details.
The threat of tsunamis
With evidence of ongoing seismic activitiy in the region, is there a threat of tsunamis, so widely publicized on television for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, to the Virgin Islands? Most definitely: The years 1530, 1689, 1692, 1751, 1755, 1775, 1780, 1842, 1867, 1907, 1918, 1929 and 1946 all saw destructive tsunamis in the wider Caribbean region.
Today, the threat is compounded by population growth and the choice of many people to live in the coastal zones of islands. And only the rudiments of a public-education and warning system are in place.
"In the last 150 years, tsunami-related fatalities in the Caribbean were nearly five times greater than in Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. West Coast combined," stated a report from a 1999 Tsunami Working Group led by Eric Geist of the U.S. Geological Survey and Aurelio Mercado Irizarry, a tsunami modeler based at the University of Puerto Rico.
Outlining a number of scientific initiatives, the working group emphasized the need for agencies and governments to develop a Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands tsunami warning system.
The science of tsunamis
A tsunami is more likely to occur from an earthquake than from a volcanic eruption, according to Roy Watlington, a marine science professor who also is chancellor of the St. Thomas campus of the University of the Virgin Islands.
A tsunami wave, with a wavelength of more than 60 miles, can travel across open ocean waters at 450 to 650 miles per hour and hardly be noticed by ships. But as it reaches shallower waters near a shoreline, the wave slows and can rise to a height of 100 feet. Historically, the waves of most destructive tsunamis have been 3 to 15 feet in height. The destructive 1867 tsunami that entered Charlotte Amalie Harbor and devastated the shore areas on St. Thomas as well as St. Croix, was reported at between 17 and 21 feet in height.
The Virgin Islands is in a seismically active area where the Caribbean and the North American tectonic plates meet far beneath the sea. The Caribbean plate is an east-west-oriented block that moves eastward with respect to the North and South American plates. Within the Caribbean plate's strike-slip motion at the northeastern edge is the deepest trench in the Atlantic, the Puerto Rican trench. That trench appears as the dark linear area at the top right of the graphic at the top of this article.
In addition to the increased activity always present at the edges of plates, the Virgin Islands area is complicated by "microplates" which have irregular intra-plate activity on a smaller scale. St. Croix especially is subject to these dynamics. Local measurement "stations" are particularly important to track these smaller movements.
Particularly active areas include the Anegada Passage east and north of St. Thomas and St. John, and the Grappler Channel and Jungfern Passage west of St. Croix. Stations placed throughout the area are used to establish epicenters through triangulation and to track dynamic activity. Stations as far away as Florida contribute to this process. The addition of more stations anywhere across the area will provide improved information on dynamics affecting the Virgin Islands.
Earlier regional and local interest
Two decades ago, Crowther recalls, a station at a house next door to his collected data for the Lamont Laboratory at Columbia University. Other residents remember an installation atop Crown Mountain on land later used by the U.S. Navy. Individuals had to periodically retrieve data tapes from these manual stations and physically transport them to data centers for organization and analysis. Computerization has dramatically overshadowed those early efforts.
Regional attention and planning for risk management has long been addressed in the Pacific area through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and is well organized. And it has been tested by natural events, many seen on national television. IOCaribe, one of seven subcommissions of the IOC, formed a steering group of tsunami experts in 1996 to address the need for a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean similar to the Pacific-area system.
The first IOCaribe Caribbean Tsunami Workshop was held on St. John in May 1996, hosted by UVI's Eastern Caribbean Center, with Watlington as UVI chief facilitator. Attended by scientists and seismic network administrators from throughout the world, this "consultation" of experts on tsunamis spent two days at the V.I. Environmental Research Station at Lameshur Bay discussing the threat of tsunami and formulating ste ps to bring about a regional warning network with the assistance of IOCaribe.
Subsequent tsunami workshops have been held annually, most of them in Puerto Rico, where the seismic network is based and where tsunami modeler Mercado is at work.
Both agencies — the Seismic Research Unit in Trinidad and Tobago and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network — are in the midst of projects that will increase and enhance earthquake data-collecting capability in the region that includes the Virgin Islands.
John Shepherd, head of the Trinidad unit, was in the British Virgin Islands last week to confer with officials and to establish a seismograph station in Road Town, Tortola. The station became operational Friday, and over the next three days it recorded seven earthquakes from the zone north of the Virgin Islands. The maximum magnitude was 4.3 on the Richter Scale, according to the SRU site, and it's unlikely any of the tremors were felt on land.
An SRU report concludes, "The pattern continues to be that of a declining aftershock sequence following the magnitude 6.0 earthquake of Oct. 17."
Shepherd expects the SRU to set up stations in Virgin Gorda and Anegada shortly.
Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, network administrator for the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, agrees with Shepherd's assessment of "petering off" from the standard sequence. On Monday evening she said the "seismicity" had decreased in both magniture and frequency over the preceding several days.
The ongoing Project PROBES (for Puerto Rico Ocean Bottom Earthquake Survey), operating out of von Hillebrandt-Andrade's agency, is placing additional stations throughout the region. The additional data collection and analysis capabilities will enable the network "to better understand the thermal structure beneath Puerto Rico and help predict the degree of ground shaking."
PROBES represents the first time that land-based and ocean-bottom probes are providing earthquake data jointly. Land-based stations are housed in a shelter about the size of a closet. The ocean probes, dropped to the ocean floor with a subsurface buoy attached, contain a cluster of measuring instruments to detect the different types of waves, notably P-waves and S-waves, emanating from earthquakes. Data collection and transmission from both types of probes is automatic.
A St. Thomas station is in place at the residence of Russell Crowther at the top of Upper Bonne Resolution and communications are being fine-tuned, von Hillebrandt-Andrade said. A St. John station is also in place, and one will be set up on St. Croix shortly.
Technicians have some logistic problems to resolve. Crowther said two to three receivers will allow data from St. John and Anegada stations to be fed into the computer at the St. Thomas location. Puerto Rico Seismic Network staff can dial in to the computer and retrieve data.
Since the Trinidad unit shares data with the Puerto Rico Network, all of these new measuring stations will benefit the Virgin Islands location with improved data, analysis, and pinpointed details.
The threat of tsunamis
With evidence of ongoing seismic activitiy in the region, is there a threat of tsunamis, so widely publicized on television for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, to the Virgin Islands? Most definitely: The years 1530, 1689, 1692, 1751, 1755, 1775, 1780, 1842, 1867, 1907, 1918, 1929 and 1946 all saw destructive tsunamis in the wider Caribbean region.
Today, the threat is compounded by population growth and the choice of many people to live in the coastal zones of islands. And only the rudiments of a public-education and warning system are in place.
"In the last 150 years, tsunami-related fatalities in the Caribbean were nearly five times greater than in Hawaii, Alaska, and the U.S. West Coast combined," stated a report from a 1999 Tsunami Working Group led by Eric Geist of the U.S. Geological Survey and Aurelio Mercado Irizarry, a tsunami modeler based at the University of Puerto Rico.
Outlining a number of scientific initiatives, the working group emphasized the need for agencies and governments to develop a Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands tsunami warning system.
The science of tsunamis
A tsunami is more likely to occur from an earthquake than from a volcanic eruption, according to Roy Watlington, a marine science professor who also is chancellor of the St. Thomas campus of the University of the Virgin Islands.
A tsunami wave, with a wavelength of more than 60 miles, can travel across open ocean waters at 450 to 650 miles per hour and hardly be noticed by ships. But as it reaches shallower waters near a shoreline, the wave slows and can rise to a height of 100 feet. Historically, the waves of most destructive tsunamis have been 3 to 15 feet in height. The destructive 1867 tsunami that entered Charlotte Amalie Harbor and devastated the shore areas on St. Thomas as well as St. Croix, was reported at between 17 and 21 feet in height.
The Virgin Islands is in a seismically active area where the Caribbean and the North American tectonic plates meet far beneath the sea. The Caribbean plate is an east-west-oriented block that moves eastward with respect to the North and South American plates. Within the Caribbean plate's strike-slip motion at the northeastern edge is the deepest trench in the Atlantic, the Puerto Rican trench. That trench appears as the dark linear area at the top right of the graphic at the top of this article.
In addition to the increased activity always present at the edges of plates, the Virgin Islands area is complicated by "microplates" which have irregular intra-plate activity on a smaller scale. St. Croix especially is subject to these dynamics. Local measurement "stations" are particularly important to track these smaller movements.
Particularly active areas include the Anegada Passage east and north of St. Thomas and St. John, and the Grappler Channel and Jungfern Passage west of St. Croix. Stations placed throughout the area are used to establish epicenters through triangulation and to track dynamic activity. Stations as far away as Florida contribute to this process. The addition of more stations anywhere across the area will provide improved information on dynamics affecting the Virgin Islands.
Earlier regional and local interest
Two decades ago, Crowther recalls, a station at a house next door to his collected data for the Lamont Laboratory at Columbia University. Other residents remember an installation atop Crown Mountain on land later used by the U.S. Navy. Individuals had to periodically retrieve data tapes from these manual stations and physically transport them to data centers for organization and analysis. Computerization has dramatically overshadowed those early efforts.
Regional attention and planning for risk management has long been addressed in the Pacific area through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and is well organized. And it has been tested by natural events, many seen on national television. IOCaribe, one of seven subcommissions of the IOC, formed a steering group of tsunami experts in 1996 to address the need for a tsunami warning system for the Caribbean similar to the Pacific-area system.
The first IOCaribe Caribbean Tsunami Workshop was held on St. John in May 1996, hosted by UVI's Eastern Caribbean Center, with Watlington as UVI chief facilitator. Attended by scientists and seismic network administrators from throughout the world, this "consultation" of experts on tsunamis spent two days at the V.I. Environmental Research Station at Lameshur Bay discussing the threat of tsunami and formulating ste ps to bring about a regional warning network with the assistance of IOCaribe.
Subsequent tsunami workshops have been held annually, most of them in Puerto Rico, where the seismic network is based and where tsunami modeler Mercado is at work.
NCAA TOURNEY TO ATTRACT VISITORS, MAJOR MEDIA
Oct. 31, 2001 – The NCAA "Paradise Jam" basketball tournament to be played at the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center Nov. 17-26 is expected to bring a lot of exposure for the territory in the mainland media as well as much-needed business for the hospitality industry here.
"The people who follow these teams have a lot of disposable income," said Peter Sauer, UVI athletic director. He expects at least 50 fans to accompany each of the 17 men's and women's teams that will play in the tournament, which extends over the long Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. That would be at least 850 visitors, and Sauer anticipates that all of them will spend at least five nights in a hotel on St. Thomas.
"It gives us a shot in the arm right when we need it," Beverly Nicholson, executive director of the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association, said. With many hoteliers talking gloom and doom for the fall and possibly the winter, Nicholson said the tournament is providing enough activity to drive up the energy level a bit.
This is the second year of National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament play at UVI. Last year, Sauer said, four women's teams played a Paradise Jam tournament here.
The participating teams are big Division I schools — colleges that have well-developed athletics programs and the money to support them. Such top names as Clemson, Florida State and Arizona State pepper the schedule.
Sauer said the teams will be housed at the island's top hotels — no low-budget guest houses for these players. "Even the poorer teams have charter flights," he said.
While the tournament traffic is good for the economy now, Sauer said, the national media coverage of the games may well lure more visitors to the territory later. He said each team will have live radio coverage of the games broadcast in its hometown, and writers from such major metropolitan area newspapers as the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times, along with the Associated Press, will have staff covering the games.
"You can't buy this kind of exposure," Sauer said.
Paradise Jam will have its social moments for local residents, too. On Nov. 16, the night before the tournament opens, the Havensight and Port of $ale Malls will host an island-style jam to welcome the visitors, with local bands and steelpan groups, moko jumbies, food and drink, arts and crafts. Team members and coaches will sign autographs for fans, Havensight Merchants and Professional Association manager Linda Pinson said.
Nicholson said the sports market is one that the territory needs to cultivate. "It's totally underserved," she said.
Nels Hawkinson, director of Basketball Travelers, the company that organized the Paradise Jam event, pointed out that on Wednesday the USA Today newspapers carried a small story in the sports section about the tournament with a headline reading "Virgin Islands hopes to be hoop resort." The article describes the UVI Sports and Fitness Center, noting that it is just a short walk from the beach at John Brewers Bay and across from the university's golf course.
"This is exactly the exposure you're going to get every day," Hawkinson said. He said Basketball Travelers' Neal Holden was on his way to the territory on Thursday to discuss with Tourism Department and St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce members what kind of support they would provide for the tournament. He said "support" would be in the form of gifts for players, not hotel rooms, airfares or other big-ticket items.
Sauer said the key to the UVI having attracted the tournament was the opening of the new athletic center last year. Without the new facility, he said, the tournament would still be winging its way to Hawaii, where it previously played.
He also said a smaller Division 3 tournament is scheduled at the center for December.
See the Source sports item "NCAA basketball tournament set for November" for the tournament schedule.
"The people who follow these teams have a lot of disposable income," said Peter Sauer, UVI athletic director. He expects at least 50 fans to accompany each of the 17 men's and women's teams that will play in the tournament, which extends over the long Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend. That would be at least 850 visitors, and Sauer anticipates that all of them will spend at least five nights in a hotel on St. Thomas.
"It gives us a shot in the arm right when we need it," Beverly Nicholson, executive director of the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association, said. With many hoteliers talking gloom and doom for the fall and possibly the winter, Nicholson said the tournament is providing enough activity to drive up the energy level a bit.
This is the second year of National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament play at UVI. Last year, Sauer said, four women's teams played a Paradise Jam tournament here.
The participating teams are big Division I schools — colleges that have well-developed athletics programs and the money to support them. Such top names as Clemson, Florida State and Arizona State pepper the schedule.
Sauer said the teams will be housed at the island's top hotels — no low-budget guest houses for these players. "Even the poorer teams have charter flights," he said.
While the tournament traffic is good for the economy now, Sauer said, the national media coverage of the games may well lure more visitors to the territory later. He said each team will have live radio coverage of the games broadcast in its hometown, and writers from such major metropolitan area newspapers as the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times, along with the Associated Press, will have staff covering the games.
"You can't buy this kind of exposure," Sauer said.
Paradise Jam will have its social moments for local residents, too. On Nov. 16, the night before the tournament opens, the Havensight and Port of $ale Malls will host an island-style jam to welcome the visitors, with local bands and steelpan groups, moko jumbies, food and drink, arts and crafts. Team members and coaches will sign autographs for fans, Havensight Merchants and Professional Association manager Linda Pinson said.
Nicholson said the sports market is one that the territory needs to cultivate. "It's totally underserved," she said.
Nels Hawkinson, director of Basketball Travelers, the company that organized the Paradise Jam event, pointed out that on Wednesday the USA Today newspapers carried a small story in the sports section about the tournament with a headline reading "Virgin Islands hopes to be hoop resort." The article describes the UVI Sports and Fitness Center, noting that it is just a short walk from the beach at John Brewers Bay and across from the university's golf course.
"This is exactly the exposure you're going to get every day," Hawkinson said. He said Basketball Travelers' Neal Holden was on his way to the territory on Thursday to discuss with Tourism Department and St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce members what kind of support they would provide for the tournament. He said "support" would be in the form of gifts for players, not hotel rooms, airfares or other big-ticket items.
Sauer said the key to the UVI having attracted the tournament was the opening of the new athletic center last year. Without the new facility, he said, the tournament would still be winging its way to Hawaii, where it previously played.
He also said a smaller Division 3 tournament is scheduled at the center for December.
See the Source sports item "NCAA basketball tournament set for November" for the tournament schedule.
