ELECTRIC SYSTEM
Reconstruction and restoration work continued in both districts Monday. On St. Thomas, crews re-established primary circuits from the UVI campus to Blackpoint Hill and also from Crown Mountain intersection to Shubui Hotel on Feeder 6A; from Four Winds to Cassi Hill on Feeder 7C, and from The Home Depot exit toward the Donoe Bypass on Feeder 9C. Work on a transmission feeder continued from the WAPA East End Substation through Red Hook and Sapphire Beach, and will continue along Smith Bay road to Lindqvist Beach. Crews restored service to customers in the Kirwan Terrace housing community and in Agnes Fancy toward the former Evelyn Marcelli School campus.
On Tuesday, electrical restoration work required traffic restrictions and road closures. VIPD was present, maintaining the flow of traffic to the greatest extent possible. On Crown Mountain Road from Shibui toward Crown & Hawk, traffic was reduced to one lane. The Home Depot exit to Donoe bypass along with the Bolongo Bay Road from the bottom of Donkey Hill to the Bertha Boschulte Middle School experienced a one-lane traffic flow. There was one lane of traffic from 7-8:30 a.m. on the Tabor and Harmony Roads from the Cassi Hill intersection to the Anna’s Retreat / Mandahl Road intersection. At 8:30 a.m., that roadway was closed to all vehicular traffic until 5 pm.
On St. John, preparations continued to restore service primarily in the downtown Cruz Bay area this week. Poles are being planted and circuits rebuilt to accommodate service restoration.
On St. Croix, service was restored to portions of Feeder 1A including: Seaborne, Red Brick community, Estate Richmond, Department of Property and Procurement offices and VITEMA. On Feeder 5A, the Sunny Isle Shopping Center including Scotiabank and Viya’s headquarters have been restored. On Feeder 6A, Club St. Croix, Harborview, Golden Rock, JFK housing community, Colony Cove, Carib Villas, Sugar Beach and the LBJ lift station were all restored. On Feeder 8B, Budget Rent-A-Car on the airport road, VI National Guard headquarters, the FAA control tower, facilities of Cruzan Rum were restored, as were as some underground circuits.
Crews also reconstructed primary circuits in the areas from Concordia Gas Station to the police station in Frederiksted, from Mountain Gas Station to Carlton and from the Hannah’s Rest intersection to Claude O. Markoe Elementary School. More than 300 new poles have been planted on St. Croix as part of the hurricane restoration.
- WAPA advises residents that it is necessary to shut off standby generators when line crews are in a neighborhood restoring electrical service. A standby generator has the potential to back feed electricity to the grid, which poses a severe safety risk to restoration crews.
Another 250 linemen will arrive on Friday, Oct. 27, bringing the total off-island personnel to more than 500 persons in the Virgin Islands assisting with the restoration of electrical service. The linemen, engineers and other personnel are equally divided between the districts, and more than 200 pieces of equipment are here to support the restoration effort.
WAPA personnel has removed electrical meters at locations where damage was apparent to either an electrical meter base and/or weather head. Home and business owners are advised to make repairs to their damaged weather heads and/or meter bases as soon as possible. Once crews have reached a neighborhood, those customers who have not had their weather head or meter base repaired, will not have service immediately restored.
POTABLE WATER SYSTEM
- There are 5 days of emergency water storage on St. John, 11 days on St. Thomas and 4 days on St. Croix.
- On St. Thomas, repairs to the Contant Knolls pump station continued Monday to allow for a resumption of water service to the Contant Knolls housing community and surrounding areas of Estate Contant.
- WAPA reminds the public that a precautionary boil water notice for potable water customers is in place territory-wide. Due to a drop in the water pressure, as a precaution, WAPA advises that all water used for drinking, cooking, making infant formula or juices, making ice, brushing teeth, washing fruits or vegetables and washing dishes be boiled. Bringing water to a rolling boil and maintaining for one full minute is sufficient. Water must be adequately cooled before it can be used and should be stored in clean, covered containers. As an alternative, bottled water certified for sale by the Department of Health may be used.
- WAPA reminds clean-up contractors and homeowners to exercise caution when piling debris on and around potable water meters. There are a growing number of instances where water meters are being damaged by clean-up equipment grading debris and causing damage to the roadside water meters. The continued damage by heavy equipment poses difficulty in maintaining or restoring potable water service to customers.
OTHER INFORMATION
Emergency Call Centers operate 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week.
St. Thomas-St. John district, 774-1424; St. Croix district, 773-0150
WAPA telephone contact: St. Thomas-St. John District, 774-3552; St. Croix district, 773-2250
Customer Service Offices operate Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sunny Isle on St. Croix and at Port of Sale Mall on St. Thomas
WAPA website: www.viwapavi / Facebook: Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority
