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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeCommentaryOpen forumSt. Croix Ignored and Forgotten After Hurricane Hits

St. Croix Ignored and Forgotten After Hurricane Hits

St. Croix Carden Beach

Dear Source:

I am a proud U.S. Virgin Islander who lives abroad, born and raised on St. Croix. I find it utterly disgusting how the United States of America have failed to even mention what has happened to St. Croix after the storm last night.

St. Croix is made up of three islands that make up the U.S. Territories, but honestly it does not feel that way. St. Croix has always lagged behind St. Thomas, St. John and of course Puerto Rico. My question is why? St. Croix always seem to be in the doghouse or considered the black sheep. It saddens me to know that my island was not worth enough for the U.S. to mention on the stateside news that St. Croix was in bad shape.

We have no idea what took place and what damage has been done to our Paradise. I experienced Hurricane Hugo/Marilyn as a kid and the same attitude/representation the U.S. had toward St. Croix is what I have seen these past few days. I have seen nothing on the news regarding what happened last night/into the early morning on St. Croix; they are families like myself who cannot get in touch with a relative(s) to know if they made it through that hell that occurred last night.

St. Croix is not a third world country and we Crucians deserve some damn respect. The same respect that St. Thomas, St. John and Puerto Rico get when they are in crisis.

Leslie Martin, formerly of St. Croix

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31 COMMENTS

  1. Leslie I agree with your sentiments. I am now here in Clermont, FL and I haven’t heard a word here about St Croix. I have done work at this very paper on a few occasions in the past and while they are clients of the company I work for, they have become and are my friends. I am very concerned I have not heard from some of them nor have heard of the damage down there. They need our help and I am ready to step up and help!

    • Leslie I am an American and I don’t agree with you. We also got hit badly. Nobody
      cares. I am just glade I am alive! I agree somewhat about St. Croix being a 3rd world
      Island. A lot of people there are money hungry with a hand out. I bought a condo
      on the Island with all the money I had and I have not been able to spend a day or night in it because of a very shellfish person. Now I have to spend more money and fight like hell to get it back because of dishonesty. Yes because I am an American.
      Us Americans help people all over the world so don’t blame us. Just hang in there St. Croix you will be helped.

  2. To Leslie Martin, it amazes me that all Caribbean Islands don’t have emergency broadband service, an intranet website, and a dedicated staff to oversee the transfer of emergency call data from the intranet to the internet as soon as comms are restored. This way, islanders can get vital information about family, friends and damage from all over our island with a cell phone or tablet. When the Mid Atlantic Cable (and others) go back online, data from the emergency intranet (located on island), is immediately transferred to internet websites like St. Croix Source for friends and family off island. This is not rocket science. Concrete subtowers can be built all across the Caribbean with generators and wet cell battery backups so comms NEVER go down for islanders. Search and rescue members would know where people are located who need help with GPS location. People whom need help could describe their emergencies (injuries, flooding, etc.) put it on the island intranet, and give rescuers the chance to prioritize rescue operations. Various rescue groups can use these hardened concrete broadband towers to walkie talkie and coordinate ops on the intranet as well. This way, people whom need help most get it first and information about a disaster gets onto the internet as quickly as possible. This would be a capital project worth consideration, imho.

    • Call Him Out — Dude, you missed the point of the post, actually several points. 1.) Victims didn’t do anything wrong (unless you include government officials who had the power to change things and didn’t), and 2.) After Hugo, victims shouldn’t have been unable to reach family members and friends because, 3.) sometime after Hugo, the Virgin Islands should have had a bullet-proof emergency broadband service in place so everyone on each island with a cell could talk to each other and rescuers. Now is exactly the time to ask tough questions about why things should have been done years ago and weren’t !!!

  3. It is great to see these, fantastic , remarks. It is a shame to see coverage for other islands, like Puerto Rico , that is a commonwealth, and st croix is always left out and it is U. S. Reporters rushed everywhere else, what happened to St croix ?
    It’s a damm shame.
    The US Virgin Islands are small islands are small enough to have electrical, cell cables underground and towere that are built strong enough for any kind of hurricane ( 4, 5 or
    Anything else)
    We do have more than enough senators, maybe to many, to get something done.
    Get it done

  4. I’ m in Florida and was thinking that we gotta step up for st croix and for the usvi too. Taking sides will not help at this time and takes away from our credibility and cause.
    Many of us work for corporate America . We can step it up and demand assistance NOW. I’m working on my resources to start screaming out and invite the various news media in the usa. Send videos and pics to anyone you know in the usa.

  5. I agree with Leslie Martin. Going back and forth between all news stations, including cable news. Scant info on St Croix. So frustrating. My son-in-law has family there, which we were so happy to visit in July. St Croix is beautiful with very dear people.
    I can only hope and pray few suffered seriously. Wish there was more news.

  6. I have to use a walkie talkie app on my Androis phone just to get some kind of info about what’s happening on STX. AT&T is the only provider on the island that’s working half way decent right now.
    I spoke to my cousin in Glenn prior to the storm and told me after Irma hit STT/STJ getting all the help: NO WATER OR CRACKERS TO EAT ON ST CROIX.

    The news hear in Orlando barely mentioned St Croix in relation to Puerto Rico, my sister was visitng family on PR before Irma: but STX is part of all 3 islands and should be taken care of. . .

  7. Maybe this paper could put out a list of what is up and operating on ALL parts of the island. We are basically homeless on the mainland trying to get back to our place on east side of St. Croix. I got early reports that some places had little to no damage but have seen absolutely nothing but coverage of the devastation in Fredericksted on the news and in videos. We know what happened and get plenty of the negatives but any positives at all? I see a lot of the roads are clear but gas stations, any markets, anything from Christiansted and eastward open at all?

  8. Having moved from St. Croix back to the mainland several years ago, I felt the same about the lack of coverage of any activities on St. Croix. However, there has been a marked increase in coverage, much of which can be attributed to the involvement of Tim Duncan. CNN, especially, has begun to pay more attention to St. Croix. Each one of us can help this pattern of increased attention by contacting the major U.S. news sources and reminding them of the need for St. Croix and the U.S. Virgin Islands to receive greater attention.

  9. This article is so NOT TRUE! I have to VENT here because this is a bunch of crap. First off, I have lots of friends on St Croix, I love St Croix and once LIVED on St Croix. Although the island has suffered a lot of damage, I dont know one person who expressed this negative ungrateful sentiment. Understand that St Croix is HARD TO GET TO. President Trump stated last night that the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are both part of the US, and America comes FIRST! They are sending aid as fast as they could. Know that both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have been devistated, airports have suffered damage and we’re CLOSED! Puerto Rico is the GATEWAY to St Croix and other Caribbean islands and no one can fly in and out of there when the airports are close! How are they suppose to bring in immediate supplies when they can’t even get to the island?? Cruise ships are trying to get there to bring supplies and get people off the island, but many deep water piers/ports are demolished and the ships cannot get to ports. Governor Mapp stated that he was happy with the response from President Trump, but the people don’t want to hear this. Many Trump haters on all these islands are in “blame mode”, and thats just sad and tragic. They all LOVED Obama and never questionwd anythi g he did however boneheaded. Now that he’s not their illustrious Black President, anyone else is inferior and “doesn’t care” about them, and thats simply BULLSHIT. Don’t forget, this is not the only disaster zone. We still have a HUGE disasters in Texas, Florida, Georgia, raging fires out west…. Relief and resources are spread thin. The Red Cross is doing all they can. And this is why people who put out articles like this, as if they live in the only disaster area in the entire country, really pisses me off to no end. You’ll get your relief. But you may have to be patient and wait for the AIRPORTS to open so that relief can actually GET IN. Its not like they have a time machine. And understand you’re not alone. Lots of other people are suffering too. But I don’t hear them complaining and writing ungrateful articles. Maybe the author of this article needs to do some volunteer work rather than type ungrateful articles getting people all riled up from behind her desk. OMG, smh in disgust.

  10. For those who actually believe that St Croix got no news coverage for the storm…. There was a meteorologist on STX THE WHOLE TIME during the storm, reporting on the storm as it was happening on the weather channel. Did you all miss this?? I watched it intently, and if you had friends and family on St Croix, you would have watched too. Know that the day after the storm no one can get in, Leslie. Communication is down, travel to and from the islands is impossible. Have a little patience and let the experts assess the damage before you jump all over the people who you claim are “ignoring” the islands. Maybe you should think about doing some volunteer work instead of bitching and complaining about stuff you have not thought deeply about. But that’s typical and could be expected. Be grateful instead of accusatory and entitled.

  11. Lets just stop the ifs the could of and the should. If their is a blame it’s the entire human race. It’s time for all to band together and start the rebuilding. No need for throwing stone we all have some kinda glass window. Lets just rebuild our Islands, do it the right and make them better for all of us.

  12. Lets just stop the ifs the could of and the should. If their is a blame it’s the entire human race. It’s time for all to band together and start the rebuilding. No need for throwing stone we all have some kinda glass window. Lets just rebuild our Islands, do it the right way and make them better for all of us.

    God Bless Us All

  13. The map link below will display a Google + GIS map with aerial photos showing post-Maria hurricane damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands. When the map opens it is zoomed in on a several story building on St. Croix that lost its roof. If you zoom way out then you will see all the areas in the Carribean where NOAA has so far taken aerial photos.

    Over the next few days NOAA is expected to take aerial photos of portions of Puerto Rico and this same map link will also display those aerials.

    If you click “Map Tips” in the upper left corner of the map then you will easily see how to search the map using the provided coordinates and see some of the other areas with significant damage.

    The map is displayed by Gmap4. I am the developer of that enhanced Google map viewer and have produced this map as a public service.

    Map link: https://goo.gl/NKK5XA

    • Are there newer recent aerials photos from the situation on St. CROIX? I try to find pictures or movies form Williams Delight road 196 in Frederiksted. That’s where my sister Thamara Sleven Cooper lives. After Maria we had only 2 times short contact by mobile phone. She had stil no internet, no water, no power, no roof, and so on. The house is destroyed or ruined. I ready and googled a lot about the situation in the USVI. It’s an heavy situation for the poor llocal community special in the West aerias around Frederiksted. I hope someone can help me? God bless you all over there on the beautiful island. A lot of greetings from The Netherlands

  14. Its great to see anyone stand out for the nonrecognition of our U.S. Virgin Islands whether from behind a desk or in front of a t.v who by the way fails to mention the devastation of somewhere where their vacation home isn’t ruined lol. Kudos to LeslieAnn and everyone on here who only want what’s best for where they were born and raised! Without awareness assistance is less likely, but with recognition it creates awareness for what alot of islanders feel has been forgotten. Kudos for those Big (Tim Duncan) and those not so big but exercise their right of speech just to create a mustard seed of awareness (LeslieAnn). And yes for those inquiring I am a proud Crucian.

  15. I used to live on St. Thomas and then later on St. Croix. My mother lived there until she died. I have intently watched TV on ALL the news stations AND the Weather Channel. I’m afraid I have to agree with those who say that St. Croix has been ignored. It seems to be all about Puerto Rico now. Yes it is also destroyed but I have NO idea if anything has gotten better since the day Maria slammed into the island. My mother and step- father owned Pivar Real Estate and we went down there every summer until she died. Can anyone tell me how the island is doing now that definitely over a week has passed. I know the hospital basically blew away. How are people doing. I sure hope at least FEMA is helping. I now live in Ocala,Fl. and would really like to know how everything is doing on the island. It was one of my favorite places in the world.

  16. Well I hate to burst the “shut your mouth and quit complaining” voices on this thread……bubble…..but IT IS TRUE THAT ST CROIX HAS BEEN IGNORED!
    You need to wake up if you think otherwise!
    I have dear friends living on St. Croix and we were watching for updates on the news coverage…only to find little to no mention about it.

  17. Power on STX is only restored in very limited areas…downtown C’sted, the airport and attempts to restore in F’sted, plus attempts to get Feeder 6A & 6B restored to Five Corners. It is crazy that this news source has done so little to keep you all informed. VI Consortium seems to be doing a little better job of covering all of the islands of the USVI. I manage Cruzan Creations in the Pan Am Pavilion and am camped out in the store because I have NO power, water, or internet in Estate Boetzberg (across from the Buccaneer Hotel area). I have power, water, internet, and A/C at the store, plus I can keep the business going while living here. It will be many months before this island recovers, just like when Hugo destroyed the island in 1989…and for the idiot who said we should have had “broadband” installed after Hugo, that didn’t even really exist 28 years ago. Hell, the INTERNET was still basically a “baby” at that time. AT&T IS the only cell service that works with any regularity, and it was down for a while when looters stole the generators during the height of the storm. Sprint and VIYA (the old Innovative and Choice services) cell phones will be a long time coming back from what I’ve been able to determine. The owner of Cruzan Creations sent me an AT&T phone from the states just so we would have communications for the business.

    ANY help any state-sider (especially you former Crucians) can offer the local residents of STX will be greatly appreciated. Give to Duncan’s foundation or to Free Will Baptist Church or other local churches, etc. I would NOT personally give to the government site that has been promoted because there is NO apparent accountability for where those funds are going.

  18. We couldn’t agree more, After visiting the island in 2016, we fell in love instantly with St Croix, and noticed even then, that it seemed to be treated like the “red headed stepchild,” in comparison to the other islands. We made it a point to watch what happened after the cat 5 hit, and sure enough-every island was mentioned But St Croix!! I tell ya this, if we lived closer.. like in Florida, instead of Colorado, we would fly over and volunteer, just to help out! We cannot wait to get back over and hope all will work out for them. PN

    • …and it’s that spirit that will make you welcome members of one of the most wonderful places on earth. We lived there for 10 fabulous years and there is simply no place to compare with St. Croix and the people there who care for their island and their neighbors.
      Roger W. Morgan

  19. I am so pleased that our Danish people have come forth to help our island. Haven’t heard a word of their landing supposedly on Sat. and how they have been welcomed by our island to lend a hand in replacing and repairing our infrastructure. Any news? Thank you Thank you Thank you Denmark for your compassion toward us