Commercial Flights At St. Thomas Airport Start Thursday; WAPA Aiming To Have 90 Percent Of Territory Restored By Christmas

ST. CROIX — Governor Kenneth Mapp, along with his administration’s department and agency heads and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives, gave the following updates at the governor’s Monday press conference, held at Government House on St. Croix.

1. Commercial flights will begin at the Cyrile E. King Airport on Thursday. Jetblue, American Airlines, Delta and possibly United Airlines, will all resume paid flights (not mercy trips) to and from the territory. The governor said interested persons should contact the airlines for more information. Flights begin as early as 9:30 a.m., and the airlines are asking passengers to be at the airport four hours before takeoff. Customs clearance will be done at the passenger’s destination, as some functionality at the St.Thomas airport remain suspended because of damage the facility sustained from Hurricane Irma. V.I.P.D. officers have been notified that persons will be leaving the territory, and should therefor not be barred — once proof is ascertained — from heading to the airport during curfew hours.
2. The government is aiming to reopen the St. Croix airport sometime next week, with a solid date to be divulged in an upcoming press conference.
3. No news on mercy missions today. On Sunday, the governor said interested persons should continue dialing the number to book the free trip until someone answers (340-772-0357).
4. Mr. Mapp announced a “permanent” curfew for St. Croix beginning Tuesday, which the governor said will give residents a sense of normalcy, as well as allow businesses to operate. The curfew on St. Croix is 4:00 p.m. to 12 noon. This means for the coming days and until a change is announced by the governor, St. Croix residents will be allowed to conduct their business between the hours of 12 noon and 4:00 p.m. The curfew on St.  Thomas remains the same: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.
5. The governor said the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority is aiming to have 90 percent of the territory powered by Christmas. WAPA has executed agreements with 40 crews in other U.S. jurisdictions, for a total of 240 linemen to help with power restoration. The governor said WAPA was working on executing a $24 million contract for the various companies, and is receiving support from the federal government relative to transportation of the linemen and their equipment. Mr. Mapp said he did not want to delay the restoration of power to the territory by simultaneously undertaking the task of putting the territory’s power lines underground, but stressed that discussions with federal partners would continue on the matter.
6. The territory’s leader spoke of accelerating the Blue Roof Project on St. Croix. He said the aim of his administration is to assure that residents whose roofs were lost during Hurricane Maria, don’t get wet when rain falls.
7. So far, USVI Recovery, the official website created by the government to accept monetary donations for the territory’s recovery effort, has raised roughly $1.4 million, the governor said. Mr. Mapp will host a press conference on Monday to announce a task for, now dubbed the “Virgin Islands Hurricane Recovery Task Force”, whose main focus will be to determine how the funds collected will be spent. The task force will include businesses leaders territory-wide, among other individuals.
8.  All government employees — to include executive branch, department and agency leaders — must check-in, not by email or phone but in person with the government no later than Friday at 5:00 p.m. The directive does not apply to employees on sick or administrative leave. Mr. Mapp said failure of these employees to check-in by Friday, will result in their placement of leave without pay effective Monday.
9. Government employees will receive their pay Thursday, however overtime will not be included in Thursday’s payroll. The governor acknowledged that first responders may be disappointed, but he said the government would work on a supplemental payroll, or include the overtime in upcoming paydays. He said the issue was not money, but rather the lack of connectivity with the ERP payment system because of damage wrought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and therefore departments and agencies were unable to submit data.
10. Dept. of Health evacuated 13 patients on Monday, 6 of whom were dialysis patients. On Sunday, the department evacuated 63 patients, 12 of whom were dialysis patients, and on Saturday, the department evacuated 27 patients, among them were no dialysis patients.
11. WIC checks are now available for St. Croix clients. These checks are being accepted at Plaza Extra East and Plaza Extra West. D.O.H. will continue to assess the ability of other vendors to process the WIC checks.
12. D.O.H. has organized a disaster stress helpline. Call 1-800-985-5990, press “2” for Spanish. The free, confidential and bilingual service is also available through SMS (text “TalkWithUs” for English and “Hablanos” for Spanish to 1-212-461-4635).
13. Pharmacies on St. Croix that are open include Mt. Welcome East (across from the Canegata Ballpark), Diamond Pharmacy (mid-island), and Neighborhood Pharmacy in Frederiksted.
14. AT&T and Sprint technicians were to arrive in the territory late Monday, the governor said, to work on cellphone service. Mr. Mapp said he would suspend “all tongue-lashing” until the technicians had completed their jobs, but reiterated his displeasure with intermittent cellphone service from the aforementioned carriers in certain parts of the territory — even as cellphone bills remain the same.
15. The Virgin Islands Next Generation Network (viNGN) and the Bureau of Information Technolgy (BIT) were still working on WiFi hot spots for St. Croix. Viya, however, has established its first WiFi hot spot at Plaza Extra West, and is working on providing internet in downtown Frederiksted and Christiansted, as well as Sunny Isle, according to a release the company issued late Monday.
16. Some 22 individuals arrested for curfew violations in the St. Thomas-St. John District were being arraigned, the governor said, citing Attorney General Claude Walker.
17. Distribution Centers on St. Thomas will open tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The locations are the Bovoni Center, Boardeaux Fire Station, kirwan Terrace, Brown Fire Station near the Barbel Plaza, Dorothea Fire Station, Eudora Kean High School, Anna’s Retreat and Tutu Fire Station, according to the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) Director, Mona Barnes.
18. Over 12,00 meals were distributed at the St. Croix distribution centers today: 2,893 at the Juanita Gardine School, 2,427 at the St. Croix Educational Complex, 3,535 at the Eulalie Rivera School, 2,126 at the Alexander Henderson School, and 1,951  at the the Cotton Valley Fire Station, for a total or 12,934 delivered meals on St. Croix today.
19. So far, FEMA has delivered 3.6 million meals, 1.3 million litters of water, 18 infant toddler kits (each kit feeds 10 infants for an entire week, according to FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer William Vogel), 28,000 tarps and 28 generators. Today, FEMA received an additional 103,000 meals, 120,000 litters of water, and 14,000 tarps.