Irma reduces St. John, a once-lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to a wasteland

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post via Denver Post

Irma reduces St. John, a once-lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to a wasteland

By ANTHONY FAIOLA | The Washington Post
PUBLISHED: September 12, 2017 at 8:56 pm | UPDATED: September 13, 2017 at 8:13 am

CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands – The Asolare restaurant is gone, practically blown off its cliff, along with its world-famous carrot ginger soup. The facade of Margarita Phil’s is a junkyard of yellow and vermilion planks. Multimillion-dollar homes and aluminum huts alike lay in ruins.

On the island of St. John, that was only Irma’s beginning. Once a lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a chain steeped in the lore of pirates and killer storms, this 20-square-mile island is now perhaps the site of Irma’s worst devastation on American soil.

Six days after the storm – some say several days too late – the island finally has an active-theater disaster zone. Military helicopters buzz overhead and a Navy aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast, as the National Guard patrols the streets.

The Coast Guard is ferrying the last of St. John’s dazed tourists to large cruise ships destined for Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. More than a few locals, cut off from the world with no power, no landlines and no cellular service – other than the single bar you might get above Ronnie’s Pizza – are leaving, too, some of them in tears.

The streets of Cruz Bay, the largest town of this island of roughly 5,000, were a bizarre tableau of broken businesses and boats on sidewalks. Beyond belief, the Dog House bar had not only a generator but satellite TV, and folks streamed in and out, some stepping over debris holding beers.

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Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/12/st-john-virgin-islands-destroyed-by-hurricane-irma/