Four months after landslides from Tropical Storm Otto’s rains damaged Coral Bay area roads, they still aren’t fixed.
Particularly hard hit were Roads in the Upper Carolina neighborhood, as well as Centerline Road. While Federal Highway Administration funding is in the works for Centerline Road, a fix for the Upper Carolina roads doesn’t appear likely.
At issue is the fact that the Upper Carolina roads (like many across the territory) are privately owned, while Centerline Road has a federal designation.
And Upper Carolina residents can’t afford the huge amount of money it would take to fix their roads.
“We need to change the rules for the territory because these are quasi-public roads,” Upper Carolina resident Sharon Coldren said at a meeting Wednesday called by the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency to get input on its effort to update the territory’s Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Only a handful of residents attended the meeting held at Julius E. Sprauve School. Meetings will be held Thursday at the Curriculum Center on St. Croix and Friday at Charlotte Amalie High School Auditorium. Both meetings begin at 6 p.m.
Coldren’s frustration was apparent when she talked about how residents immediately called in a backhoe when a landslide blocked the only road into the area.
“We’re into self-help in Coral Bay,” she said, adding that most of the people who live in the 50 homes that dot the hillsides are middle-class full-time residents.
Because the residents solved some of the problem themselves, Coldren said it looks like they had less damage.
Carey Mercurio, whose house is at the top of a major landslide that runs from one of Upper Carolina’s roads to Centerline Road, said that upgrading the neighborhood’s drainage system would help, but that another rain like Otto would probably cause similar damage.
Otto was part of a trio of storms that “whammied” the territory. Jonetta Darden, VITEMA’s deputy director of the grant’s management program, said presidential disaster declarations for Hurricane Earl, Otto and Tropical Storm Tomas in such a short space of time set a record for the territory.
During a presentation by Jeffrey Euwema of the Council for Information and Planning Alternatives, which has a contract to help develop the Hazard Mitigation Plan, those at the meeting identified hurricane winds, earthquakes and landslides as the top hazards on St. John.
In other VITEMA news, Deputy Director Noel Smith said the agency continues to look for someone to head its St. John office. He’s said he hopes someone with appropriate skills will come forward.
If you can’t attend one of VITEMA’s meetings, a way to comment will soon be on VITEMA’s website at www.vitema.gov.
