WAPA Tags St. Croix With Epic Power Outage Saturday

ST. CROIX – Residents experienced a 14-hour, island-wide power outage Saturday – one of the longest non-storm-related blackouts in 25 years – after the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said a “heavy surge” took down the Estate Richmond plant’s ability to distribute electricity.

WAPA said the bus circuitry that connects the plant’s generators to its feeders had failed about 4:50 a.m. leading to the island-wide outage.

WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge took to the airwaves on WMNG-FM 104.9 its sister stations and said “a variant in a part of the utility company that oversees the status of the switches” had severely damaged the “bus work” in the plant.

“When we experience a hit that hard, there can be damage to the components of the plants,” Hodge said.

Juan F. Luis Hospital CEO Kendall Griffith went on the radio and said three patients in the Intensive Care Unit were not affected by the outage although people in the Emergency Room remained in darkness for six hours because the hospitals two back-up generators failed.

“Two of the patients were on ventilators and these have battery back-up,” Griffith said.

Police Commissioner Delroy Richards Sr. told the V.I. Consortium that his department was prepared for any contingency, including the island being without power for the whole night.

“We have marshaled our forces but we don’t know what’s going to happen yet,” Richards said, adding that police were monitoring the situation closely.

Gov. Kenneth Mapp made an address over the radio in the late afternoon saying that a curfew would not be put into effect for St. Croix because he had assurances from Hodge that electricity would be restored to the island later that evening.

Mapp apologized to the public for the interruption in business commerce caused by the unprecedented power outage. There was a sign on the door at IHOP saying that it was closed due to the lack of power. Choice Wireless and Innovative Telephone also shut down because of no electricity. Home Depot reported brisk sales in generators, selling out later in the day.

Virgin Islands Port Authority Executive Director Carlton Dowe told the V.I. Consortium that air traffic was not interrupted at the Henry Rohlsen Airport and that the generator there was fully functional and working.

About 12 hours after the outage began, Hodge said WAPA was making progress and had restored power to the Juan Luis Hospital and the nearby Sunny Isle Shopping Center.

By 8 p.m. all but two feeders on St. Croix had been restored to power.

The last two feeders were put back online at 10:20 p.m. and residents were able to take showers and flush toilets – all the everyday things people take for granted until the power goes off.