Trees, plants and pocketbooks are withering under the clear, dry skies of the Virgin Islands.
Water trucks grind their way up the steep hills of St. Thomas, as residents’ cisterns run dry.
“We had to buy water for the first time, ever,” said Northside resident Elisa Bryan, attributing her heretofore good fortune to the “enormous” cistern in the house her parents built.
And while the chatter on the streets suggests many in the community are in Bryan’s position, it’s always the farmers who suffer the most.
“It’s a serious drought going on right now, ” according to Benita Samuel.
Samuel, a long-time Bordeaux farmer, lamented,“Our pond is almost empty,” adding that this drought started earlier than the 2015 event that lasted for months destroying crops and livestock.
Meteorologist Gabriel Lojero from the San Juan National Weather center agreed Wednesday.
“Yes, it’s true,” he said, “we’re in a drought.”
And not just in the Virgin Islands.
“It’s the same here in Puerto Rico,” he said.
Lojero said it’s due to a weak El Nino system that affects weather worldwide.
“In the Caribbean it tends to make conditions drier than normal.”
On St. Croix, brush fires have broken out on the South Shore due to the dry conditions exacerbated by invasive underbrush, according to Nicole Angeli, acting director of Planningand Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife.
“In the Virgin Islands our wildlife is both flora and fauna,” she said.
The fires directly affect seed beds, and cause loss of soil bacteria. Additionally she said, “We are really concerned about some of the rare species on South Shore.”
ArtFarm LLC has been particularly hard hit, losing more than half its acreage to the brush fires, according to its website.
The drought, coupled with the fires, caused owners Luca and Christina Gasperi to close the farm three months early, their blog stated.
“These extreme dry conditions mean that the same head of lettuce will grow much more slowly, only get half as large, and require much more water. If we are in for another drought like we had in 2015, we have to conserve some water for firefighting and to keep our fruit trees and animals alive.”
In an attempt to put a positive note on the dramatically negative effects of the drought, Angeli said the fires provided an opportunity to get rid of the invasive “tan-tan” underbrush and to plant native species in its place.
But, she added, the fires are frightening.
Lojero also tried to hold out a little hope. He said, though the El Nino effect will be in place for the rest of the spring and summer, it is “pretty weak,” adding that prior experience suggested the possibility of wetter conditions on the horizon, maybe as soon as next week.
“But it’s still an uncertainty five to seven days out.,” he said.
You can thank the U.S. Military, as they are spraying our skies, and it sucks the rain from the clouds. Haven’t you all noticed year after year that we now get dark clouds, and even thunder at times, the forecast will be for rain, and we don’t get one drop? You will also notice that a couple of days before rain is in our forecast that you will see our skies sprayed and sprayed. Haven’t you also noticed that we don’t get long duration rains anymore? Do some research, as the U.S. Military has been playing with the weather for a while. We all know America wants to control every thing on this planet, and they are working on using the weather as another war tool.
And we also must notice that we can have a 40% chance of rain, and then when the U.S. Military starts spraying, the chance of rain will go down to 10%. You will also notice that Lojero says there MAY be rain as soon as next week, “But it’s still an uncertainty five to seven days out.” Meteorologists used to could predict the rain. If they said we were going to have rain today or tomorrow, or even next week, we got rain, because they follow the weather patterns. Not any more. They can’t, because the weather is being manipulated. We haven’t had good predictions for rain in years now. We have had predictions of 6 inches of rain and we got not one drop. How is that possible? It is only possible when the weather is being tampered with. This is nothing new. The U.S. Military has been messing with the weather since at least Vietnam that I know of. They caused droughts and floods to starve people in Vietnam. And one only has to imagine how much better the U.S. Military’s technology is today. The U.S. Military also has lasers that can create earthquakes. You can find this all out online. It isn’t a secret. One just has to care enough about the planet and its inhabitants (especially our children’s futures) to know the truth.
I’m the first guy to blame geoengineering but I jist returned from the virgin islands and in the WEEK I was there I saw not ONE chemtrail….not….one.
Well, then you were lucky, but believe me, the skies are sprayed on a regular basis. For someone that was only here a week, you shouldn’t have even replied, as you aren’t qualified to reply.