Jan. 9., 2005 –– The entire island of St. Croix lost power at 6:20 a.m. Sunday when an insulator blew in a switch yard at the Richmond plant, V.I. Water and Power Authority chief operating officer Glenn Rothgeb said Sunday.
At 1:30 p.m., he said he expected power to be out all afternoon.
"It's going to be a while," he said.
He said a WAPA crew was able to restore power to the Richmond plant, when they closed a feeder, another adjacent switch yard had problems.
"That shouldn't have happened," he said.
St. Croix resident Chris Goodier said she, her husband Bob and their house guests were roughing because their generator was in the shop. She said her company visited the first time when Hurricane Debbie hit and the power went out.
"So, they're used to the quirks of visiting people who live in the Virgin Islands," Goodier said.
She and her husband took their house guests out for brunch at Duggin's Reef, an East End restaurant.
Another observer said McDonald's at Ville La Reine was "packed" with people, as the fast-food eatery was running on generator power.
Goodier said Duggin's was also packed, with that restaurant also running on generator power.
Goodier said not only were they sitting around with no lights on, they were cold.
Rain began falling across the territory Sunday morning. Hector Rivera, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Juan, said radar indicated that St. Croix's rain fell mostly at sea. However, Goodier said it was raining at 1:15 p.m.
Rivera said St. Thomas and St. John experienced heavy showers. He expects the weather to clear a bit by late afternoon Sunday, but this weather system will remain until mid-week, so look for more wet weather.
He said it was caused by an upper-level low-pressure area.

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