Tag Archives: U.S. Virgin Islands

Evacuees Leave Puerto Rico by Cruise Ship

Posted on by
Reply

People line up to board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that will take them to the U.S. mainland, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Alvin BaezThousands of people lined up at San Juan harbor on Thursday to board a cruise ship that will take them from Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland in one of the largest evacuations since Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico more than a week ago.

Maria, which came ashore as the strongest storm to hit the island in nearly 90 years, has created a humanitarian crisis. The powerful storm knocked out the nation’s electric grid and has crippled communications networks, transport and the water supply for the territory’s 3.4 million people.

The devastation is likely to feed an exodus that has driven tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans from the economically struggling island in recent years in search of opportunity on the mainland.

“I’m sorry to be leaving Puerto Rico, but I have to. I prefer home, but it’s impossible with these conditions,” said Ada Reyes, 85. She was in a wheelchair and traveling on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship bound for Florida with her granddaughter, Maria Fernanda, 19.

Fernanda planned to drop her grandmother in Florida, then head to Boston to look into colleges. A second-year student at the University of Puerto Rico, the teenager did not know when classes there would resume.

Royal Caribbean International said its Adventure of the Seas cruise ship will carry 3,800 passengers from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. A company spokesman said the cruise line is providing the passages free of charge and that travelers were registered with the help of local officials.

The ship will make humanitarian calls in the hurricane-hit U.S. Virgin Islands, where it will drop off supplies. It will then head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a planned arrival of October 3.

The cruise line said it will work with airlines to make travel arrangements for passengers looking to meet up with friends and family on the mainland.

“This is a humanitarian mission on behalf of Royal Caribbean,” company spokesman Owen Torres said.

At San Juan’s main airport, flights are slowly returning. Major carriers including Southwest and JetBlue are still operating at reduced schedules as the airport works to restore power and return to full staffing levels.

JetBlue typically has about 40 flights a day to Puerto Rico but on Thursday it had only seven, which it said was still more than any other airline flying to the U.S. territory.

ONE WAY OR ROUND TRIP?

People have waited for days for a flight out, with some Puerto Ricans wondering if they will stay once they reach the U.S. mainland.

Lilliana Pastor, 34, of San Juan, decided on Tuesday to buy a one-way ticket to Florida for her and her 7-year-old daughter, Leah Aguayo.

“Right now we don’t know about the electricity. We don’t have running water,” Pastor said. “I’d rather go to Miami where we have family and see what happens.”

As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans can easily move to the United States. Migration to the mainland has soared in recent years, fueled by Puerto Ricans’ desire for economic stability, jobs, schools and access to medical care.

Between April 2010 and July 2016, the population of Puerto Rico dropped by 8.4 percent, the U.S. Census said, the largest percentage drop of any U.S. state or territory.

Nearly one-third of those born in Puerto Rico now live on the U.S. mainland, economists wrote in a research report published on a blog site run by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The migrants are mostly younger workers, tilted toward the lower end of the skills and earnings spectrum. The loss of these taxpayers is a blow to the island’s already reeling economy, the economists wrote in an August 2016 post for Liberty Street Economics.

Puerto Rico, which earlier this year filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history, is struggling to regain economic stability in the face of a $72 billion debt load and near-insolvent public health and pension systems.

ECONOMIC DETERIORATION

The out-migration has accelerated the aging of Puerto Rico’s remaining population, further straining government services, the economists said.

“If people continue to leave the island at the pace that has been set in recent years, the economic potential of Puerto Rico will only continue to deteriorate,” their research said.

Back at San Juan’s port, Lara Brown, 42, who runs a child care center, was fighting back tears. She was sending her son, 14, and daughter, 12, to Miami to live with her sister-in-law, where she says life for them will be easier.

“They have no electricity. Sometimes they have water, sometimes they don’t,” Brown said. “I’m afraid to leave them at home alone.”

Brown started to cry.

Cruise ship chartered for relief mission in St. Thomas

Posted on by
Reply
Grand Celebration.

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line said its ship has been chartered to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to assist hurricane-recovery efforts in St. Thomas.

The Grand Celebration will head for the storm-stricken destination in the U.S. Virgin Islands with arrival anticipated on Sept. 23. The mission is expected to continue into the later part of December, with Grand Celebration resuming its two-day cruises to Freeport from the Port of Palm Beach on Dec. 23.

St. Thomas was devastated by Hurricane Irma and is in line for more hurricane-force winds from Hurricane Maria. While in St. Thomas, the ship will be used to house National Guard first responders.

Image result for St. Thomas hurricane damage

“We will be reaching out to all of our guests and travel partners this week,” said Bahamas Paradise CEO Oneil Khosa. “We feel badly about this 90-day disruption but believe the extensive needs of the St. Thomas people to be of greater importance at this time.”

Guests who have already booked cruises during the next few months through travel partners should contact their agents about rebooking or refunds. Those who booked direct can call the customer service department at (800) 374-4363.

The Grand Celebration, originally the Carnival Celebration, has 750 cabins and space for up to 1,900 guests.

Norwegian Sky gave Irma victims hope

Posted on by
Reply

Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart embraces Hurricane Irma evacuee Bryan Denton. At left is Denton’s sister-in-law, Jodi. Photo Credit: Tom StieghorstMore than 900 people stuck in the U.S. Virgin Islands because of Hurricane Irma, many grateful to be alive, arrived at PortMiami on Friday morning after being rescued in St. Thomas by the Norwegian Sky cruise ship.

The majority were tourists stranded when Irma’s 185 mph winds obliterated the Cyril E. King Airport in Charlotte Amalie. “The control tower is gone,” said Charlene Woolley, who was on vacation from Atlanta. “[Flying] was not an option.”

The Norwegian Sky had sailed empty to Cancun during the storm and motored directly to St. Thomas once the government there sent out an urgent request for transportation off the island.

The 2,004-passenger ship picked up a total of 923 evacuees, including 99 from St. John who had been brought to St. Thomas by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel.

Before the hurricane, Woolley said she was relocated from the beachfront hotel where she had been staying to the Windward Passage. That hotel is built of concrete and mostly stood against the storm’s assault, but sustained a lot of damage.

“It was raining in the room,” Woolley said. “Some rooms had lost their ceilings. The air conditioner was gone. We were in the bathroom. The whole building was shaking the whole time. Imagine a really big hotel door that was rattling like you think it was going to blow off.”

Hurricane Irma evacuee Arlene Graham shares a photo of the storm with Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart at PortMiami. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Hurricane Irma evacuee Arlene Graham shares a photo of the storm with Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart at PortMiami. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst

She said the shatter-proof windows looked like they were “breathing,” being sucked in and out by the pressure.

But Woolley said the aftermath was worse.

“Because of where our hotel was, it was kind of a bad part of town. So there was nightly shooting. They were robbing the tourists because they knew they had cash,” she said. “There was no power. There was a generator that the manager of the hotel ran only at night for lights, for safety. We actually had the St. Croix police staying in our hotel and there were still people trying to get in. You literally stood outside your room and guarded your supplies, your water, ice, toilet paper.”

Woolley found out on the web that the Norwegian Sky was coming to evacuate people. She and her companion got their names on the list.

“You literally saved our lives,” Woolley told Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart, who was at the port on Friday to greet evacuees. “I can’t say that enough.”

For Terry Denton and his family, Norwegian Cruise Line represented hope at the darkest hour.

The Phoenix businessman was on a 10-day vacation with his wife and two relatives. They had planned to fly back before the storm hit, “but that didn’t happen,” Denton said.

Norwegian Sky by Dave Jones

Instead they were moved from their waterside villa to a condo building, where the walls held but the windows shattered. The room flooded.

Still left with some internet service, Denton heard a rumor that a cruise ship was coming and sent Facebook messages to every line he could.

Only Norwegian replied. “They simply typed back, ‘You’re not forgotten. Someone will come help you,'” said Denton’s wife Jodi.

Until that point, the group, which included Denton’s brother and the brother’s daughter, had been in the dark literally and figuratively. “We had nothing before that,” Jodi Denton said. “It gave us hope.”

Another evacuee, Arlene Graham, had been through hurricanes before. As a 20-year-resident of St. Croix and St. Thomas, she had seen some severe storms, including Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which left 11,000 people on St. Thomas homeless.

“This hurricane was worse,” she said.

Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart talks with Charlene Woolley, an Atlanta resident on vacation in St. Thomas when Hurricane Irma hit. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart talks with Charlene Woolley, an Atlanta resident on vacation in St. Thomas when Hurricane Irma hit. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst

Although her home held up fairly well, Graham said she left her husband to take care of the property so she could get her 15-year-old son Ahmad reestablished in school in northern Virginia.

“We’re not sure how the storm will affect things,” said Graham, a financial analyst for the Department of Education.

Graham said there was no looting in her neighborhood, but the island is in dire need of supplies, including tarps for damaged roofs, food, water and ice.

“The main concern is for people to be able to get back on their feet and sustain themselves, and get what is needed to rebuild,” she said.