Feb. 20, 2002 – St. John was hit by one power outage early Wednesday morning and another at mid-day.
The first occurred around 1 a.m. and lasted for about an hour and a half. Then power went out again about 10:30 a.m. and returned at 1:15 p.m.
Water and Power Authority spokeswoman Patricia Blake Simmonds said that the daytime outage happened because one of the two undersea cables that connect St. Thomas and St. John, the cable on Feeder 7D, failed. The other cable already was out of service because it needs extensive repairs.
Simmonds had no further information on either outage, except to say that what caused the problems was under investigation.
Because of the daytime outage, the Education Department sent Julius E. Sprauve and Guy Benjamin School students home early. According to a press release from the department, classes were dismissed at 1 p.m., 15 minutes before power returned.
However, many St. John businesses didn't lose a beat when the electricity went off.
"I have a generator," said Moe Chabuz, an owner of Skinny Legs Bar and Restaurant in Coral Bay. He said he learned years ago to be prepared for outages in order not to lose business.
