USVI-On-Line

Great article in the St. Thomas Source today:

"<a href="http://stthomassource.com/content/news/ ... nds"><b>20 Years Ago, Hugo Battered the Virgin Islands</b></a>

It was the very worst of times, but the best of times too, as neighbors helped neighbors survive the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo.

Twenty years have passed since that Sept. 17 and 18, 1989, disaster stunned the Virgin Islands with its ferocity."

Can anyone share some memories with us? This was right before I started to visit the VI - but my father-in-law was holed up in the Marriott on St. Thomas with a bunch of other people who were given shelter there.

My Brother Chris lived in Red Hook near the 7-Eleven and worked at the East Coast Bar & Grill. He said that St. Thomas looked like a giant hand had smashed it flat. Two weeks later most of the roofs had blue FEMA tarps on them.

He had no electricity for over a year and only got telephone service because his room mate worked for the phone company. The telephone wire was strung across roofs from the working pole.

Hugo was bad, but the first Gulf War was just as bad economically. People stopped traveling. I sent him money so that he could come back to Virginia for my wedding in April 1991 and he didn't go back until a St. John trip in 2006... there had been a few changes.

Cheers, RickG

I didn't get to the USVIs until 95 but I know several guys from our town that moved down there after Hugo to work in construction. They have stories to tell!

We were on our honeymoon staying at The Sea Cliff Beach Resort on Water Island. The days prior to Hugo we were told "it'll turn...it'll turn", well, the airport was closed and we were stuck. Had a great hurrican party at Sea Cliff and road out the storm. We woke up the next day to a full blown hurricane and devistation.

After a day we were taken over to STT and told we could go to the airport and get a flight out, one problem...no airport, we could not get within a mile of it. We spent the next week at the Windward Passage without (just like everyone else) electric, AC, running water, ice (took a liking to warm drinks)

Thankfully, we had met a group of people our first week at Sea Cliff that stuck together through it all for support and safety.

We tempted fate and retuned to STT the same week in 1999 for the ten year anniversary.