Heavy rains over the weekend hampered the efforts of the territory’s utility companies to restore telephone and electric service to customers 19 days after Hurricane Lenny hit St. Croix.
Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. spokeswoman Katrina Comissiong was unable to say on Monday how many phone customers are still without service. She said an update would be issued Tuesday.
Following the storm approximately 3,300 customers were without service, with about 1,000 of those on St. Thomas.
The weekend's stormy weather didn’t help matters, either, Comissiong said. "I know we experienced somewhat of a setback with all the rain," she said. "We’re going to redouble our efforts."
Although St. Croix was hit harder than its sister island, Comissiong said there were still customers on St. Thomas without phone service. The heavy rain also stymied the efforts of Vitelco crews on St. Thomas over the weekend.
"We don’t want to open up or splice cables when it’s raining," she said.
Meanwhile, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority "essentially completed recovery on St. Croix Sunday," said Raymond George, WAPA’s executive director.
Mother Nature also caused some delays in WAPA’s efforts to restore electrical service to hilly areas such as Annally, Blue Mountain, Recovery Hill, Scenic Ridge and Spring Garden. The ground in some areas is saturated and soft, making vehicular access difficult, thereby delaying completion in these areas, said WAPA spokeswoman Patricia Blake Simmonds.
In other areas, such as Blue Mountain and Recovery Hill, WAPA was hampered by wet, slippery roads that made it difficult to navigate the large trucks to the top of the mountains, she said.
Weather permitting, WAPA expects to finish all these hot-spot areas by Wednesday. In addition to these hot spots, the Authority continues to work on trouble calls resulting from the rains and winds over the weekend.
