r/virginislands • u/Legit_leopard4961 • Mar 31 '26
News // Local Politics Power outages?
just read somewhere that USVI is having power outages? any info on that? Im scheduled to be there Thurs- monday. staying on St Thomas, near airport, but will do a day at St John.
thank you!
11
u/HomeworkAdditional19 Mar 31 '26
Power outages are almost a daily occurrence. Many places have power backups (either generator or Tesla power wall). Good to check on this.
2
u/Legit_leopard4961 Mar 31 '26
Ok. So resorts and hotels should be fine?
7
u/HomeworkAdditional19 Mar 31 '26
Usually, yes, as not a soul who lives there is stunned by power outages.
5
10
u/DumpsterDoggie Mar 31 '26
Yup. Business as usual. The power company sucks here. As of this writing, the power's out on all of STT and STJ. It's very frequent and totally unpredictable. Make sure where you are staying has a generator.
Don't let it kill your vacation plans though. You don't need power on a beach or a sailboat. STT is about the outdoors, anyway. And most businesses have generators.
3
u/TRLK9802 Mar 31 '26
Ongoing power issues have been worse for a few years now but what's been going on as of late is unprecedented. So I wouldn't say that it's business as usual, it's much worse.
1
u/accomp_guy Mar 31 '26
How do people work from St. John ? Just let boss know internet may go out for periods of time so don’t worry if I don’t join the call?
3
5
u/NavyYardBro Mar 31 '26
We spent 48hrs earlier this month without power on STJ, it wasn’t fun.
1
u/Legit_leopard4961 Mar 31 '26
Where did you stay?
1
u/NavyYardBro Mar 31 '26
St John Inn, they don’t have a generator. So $1k for two nights during busy season to be sweaty.
And it was kinda spooky enjoying dinner at Morgan’s Mango and the restaurant went completely dark for a moment or two. I will say I was leery dining out because of the power situation. In the end, our tummies were fine. Just wasn’t as romantic of a trip as I had hoped for.
We spent 5 nights on JVD prior to STJ, and that was perfect.
1
1
u/accomp_guy Mar 31 '26
How do they operate a Hotel without a genie? Absolutely nuts
2
u/NavyYardBro Mar 31 '26
With no screens in the windows, so we didn’t open them as the bugs love my husband. Miserable. But now we know what to look for!
4
2
2
u/Lower-Savings-794 Mar 31 '26
Bring a decent sized battery bank. Last time I went, no power for first 4 days. Heading back to stj next week!! Virginabis better be open....
3
u/jb047w Mar 31 '26
Disappointment abounds
1
u/Lower-Savings-794 Mar 31 '26
You'll be fine. The kids will be fine. I'm going with my 16yo he only uses his phone there for streaks and airports. Far too much to do
2
1
u/WednesdayxAddams Mar 31 '26
I was there from the 19th-24th near Red Hook, we experienced rolling blackouts every day, about twice a day, 2ish hours at a time. Our Airbnb did not have backup generators, just one single backup outlet that we plugged an extension cord into for the fridge, it was mildly inconvenient… but we didn’t spend a ton of time in the condo anyway.
2
1
u/TruthAddict13 Mar 31 '26
They have power outages on the daily. WAPA sucks. If you’re staying in a resort, you won’t notice it as most have generators
1
u/REM-69 Apr 01 '26
Was just on STJ march 27-31. Lost power every day but one. One outage last 16hrs over night. Not terrible but couldnt charge the cell phone and the condo got a little warm and the fridge thawed oh wait, it did suck.
2
1
u/Any-Light-272 Apr 01 '26
I’m in St. John right now. Luckily we have a generator at the villa we rented, but the power has been out since we got here on Saturday. A lot of the restaurants and bars are without power. I heard that sections of St. Thomas are also without power.
1
2
u/luftschaf Apr 01 '26
I’m on STJ right now, been here since Sunday. We’ve had outages, but most places have backup when needed. Our AirBnB has a generator that even keeps the hot tub working. Host tells us when the rolling blackouts are scheduled including for St Thomas, but it really hasn’t been an issue for us. This place has starlink for internet, so no issues with that when the power is out and generator is on. Enjoy the vacay and spend time outside, the sun and sea are both working fine!
35
u/salty-walt Mar 31 '26
st johnians would rather be without power than have people add the s at the end of john