Dorian took a hard turn from its projected path on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, a potential the National Hurricane Center through its advisories cautioned. It bypassed St. Croix and stormed ashore in the St. Thomas-St. John district as a Category 1 hurricane, dropping trees, poles and rooftops in its wake. Photo: VI Consortium

Up to the Morning of Thursday, August 29, 2019, first responders and emergency management teams were still assessing the damage caused by maximum sustained winds of 82 mph and 111 mph gusts.

USVIPD  Public Information Officer Glen Dratte said an elderly woman on St John who died during Hurricane Dorian was an 82-year-old woman who had a variety of health challenges.

Authorities cannot say, for sure, if her death was storm-related, said Daryl Jaschen, director of the Virgin Islands Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA). Her name has not been released. 

Dorian was a tropical storm headed on west-northwest trajectory at a steady 13 mph when it swerved north. By 12:30 Wednesday afternoon, increasingly powerful winds blew past St Croix on a beeline for the rest of the territory. 

“No one really expected the storm to turn,” Governor Albert Bryan Jr said during the administration’s Wednesday evening post-mortem of Dorian’s landfall well north of St Croix. After a northerly turn, “Dorian became a hurricane rather quickly,” the governor said. 

Days leading up to the storm, the Consortium closely followed the NHC’s advisories, and while NHC had forecast the storm to hold west-northwest, it constantly warned that interests in the US Virgin Islands should monitor its path — meaning there was always the possibility of a change in direction.

Four to six inches of rain fell across the territory, with up to eight inches falling in some isolated areas, said Mr Jaschen.

Airport

According to the USVI Airport Authority:

• The Cyril E. King Airport on St Thomas reopened at 7:00 a.m. Thursday 
• The Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St Croix did not close and is operating as normal. It will also be open tomorrow, August 30, 2019.
• The US Coast Guard will complete its safety assessments of the seaports and make an announcement as to when they will reopen.