CHRISTIANSTED — The territory is in for an alternatingly hot, rainy and hot again few days, officials said during a Government House briefing on Tuesday.
From the National Weather Service, Ernesto Morales said the agency issued an extreme heat warning for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for the first time this year. That means heat indices — especially on St. Croix — above 108 degrees.
“The good news — well, also the bad news — is that we’re going to have a break on this heat due to the rain we’re expecting,” he said. Most of that is expected between Wednesday and Thursday night, but there’s a chance that the rain will move north.
Afterward, the heat is expected to return.
V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency Director Daryl Jaschen urged Virgin Islanders to sign up for AlertVI, which residents can do by visiting vitema.vi.gov. Residents will be able to receive real-time updates on important weather and emergency events in English or Spanish.
With heavy rains expected for the next few days, Jaschen urged motorists to avoid low areas where water is accumulating.
As temperatures rise, residents have had to contend with multiple, ongoing power outages. Governor Albert Bryan declared a state of emergency on April 22 because of the utility’s inability to continue providing power to the territory.
During Tuesday’s briefing, Government House Communications Director Richard Motta Jr. said an emergency response team had been formed and was meeting with the Water and Power Authority about the outages. Motta said the incident commander for that team is Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal.
On Tuesday morning, Government House issued a press release stating that the Management and Budget Office is nearing completion of the 2025 fiscal year budget. Motta said that according to the latest report he’d seen, the territory’s revenue collections are 15 percent above last year but eight percent off projections from the 2024 fiscal year.
“Which is not an uncommon thing,” Motta said. “But that’s what the governor’s financial team is working to reconcile right now prior to the introduction of the 2025 budget.”
Motta also announced on Tuesday that Bryan recently signed off on rules and regulations to govern cannabis use in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
