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Microsoft WordArt 2.0 MSWordArt.2 MSWordArt.2 WordArt Wingdings Cruzan Breeze Written by the Cruzan Possé Completely Unofficial St. Croix News Thursday, September 21, Afternoon Do your best for yourself and property, then help others. Eat. --- Blatant Editorial --- With considerable money and resources flowing, there is a very human tendency to think ‘how much can I get?’ Consider the purpose of disaster relief. To get us on our feet and keep us there. Sometimes an improvement in pre-storm conditions is warranted. It makes sense to rebuild your house in concrete. Otherwise, unwarranted profit from a disaster is in bad taste. Government officials, help us understand what is reasonable by discussing not just what your program is or will offer but the rationale and philosophy of the program. Thanks! --- We heard --- Government is having problems distributing available resources. Much irie ting on de island now. But no one know how to hand out while keeping hand. One ice plant shut down when people could not stand in line. Some federal programs are physically ready to move but are being micro managed to death from afar. Millions of dollars worth of needed aid/equipment and thousands of people are idle waiting for decisions. STT is having lots of major problems. The stories are Icky poo. 90% devastation. Gangs are large, organized, well armed and intimidating government and all. Curfew is not working on STT. To discourage looting, store owners are hiring persons to hang out around the clock with machine guns. That seems to work. Those national weather forecasters would not be welcome here. We hear that Marilyn is now a retroactive category three; far from the category one we were told to expect. We all know that the location prediction was way off. Hess clocked winds at 157 before their meter broke. (Hugo broke the meter at 210). On STX things are very good (considering). The Governor said today we may get a cruise ship this Friday! Local government is acknowledging that STJ & STX will be ready for tourism before STT and there should be advertising saying such. Curfew will continue on both islands, perhaps extended to 8 PM on Friday if the cruise ships stay late. The government is still not admitting to much of what’s happening on STT. Lots of raw sewage was released, stay out of the ocean. Sort your debris, metal is handled differently. Don’t touch wires. --- How de ting? --- Cruzan Rum Distillery: We hope it’s OK. VITELCO: We made a long distance yesterday morning! Still haven’t been able to call STT but we have heard of others who did. Cellular seems to work best as most of the “regular” phones are out. WAPA: Much of the island power now; feeders and lines are being added faster than you can say “Done good dis time.” Schneider said today that a massive focus of power restoration will focus on STX. He said done in 10 days! I wanna believe. Rumor has it that part of the problem is many stockpiled resources were used up after the very impressive recovery from the week before. --- Current Weather --- Nothing significant out there, but we want major reports. The local weather report from Isle 95 says “all is quiet.” There’re a couple of very weak waves out there. They are not organized and don’t look like they will. Sea temperature is cold which should further discourage strengthening. We are in the middle of a high (pressure) which should produce another 24 hours of most excellent weather. If you have cable, the weather channel is back. --- Hall of Fame --- All a we. The STX community is hanging together and responding heroically. The VI Government: Roy we all owe you dinner; Mapp you’re doing a good job but lighten up; Vic, our congressman, was a major source of information for stateside friends and relatives. Senators are finally justifying those major staffs. We’re going to ignore all those newspaper articles from now on. The ice cream folks at five corners who gave it all a way. --- Who dat mon? --- National Guard has 550 troop members active on all three islands. Some had to transfer from STX to STT. 100 more are down due to stress. They expect to bring in some stress professionals. Personally, I’d rather have their weight in ice. FEMA doesn’t have a number or place to hang their hat. (See Where de Money for a possible alternative number). Once created, assistance centers are called DACs. After registration, an inspector will visit within two weeks to confirm damages. FEMA provides grants (that means you don’t pay it back) but you probably won’t get one if they think you can pay it back. If you have a job, they will probably be sure you can pay it back. SBA who has much the same numbers. FEMA may have some grants that are not dependent on income status. Isle 95 Doing a great job but we’d like more news and less music. We would like to know what’s happening with the rest of the world (except for OJ). You used to do the news on the hour. Some sort of predictable sequence would be nice. We really want to hear complete weather reports. Keep up the appropriate music selections. Post Office: Have FREE post cards to send out to family. They delivered stuff that was on island and are now brining in new mail. Red Cross: Another alternative good for food and shelter. Stateside contacts say that the Red Cross has been somewhat clueless in regards to passing messages along. SBA: No number yet. Will provide disaster loans at 4% for items that FEMA does not cover (try FEMA too). The government would rather give you a loan than a grant. If you are declined a loan by the SBA, FEMA gives you the money. --- Talk about de money --- There will be federal funds but the focus for the next couple of days will remain direct assistance. Emergency rent grants to $2,200 were recently offered in California, the number was $1,600 for Hugo. Available if you can’t live where you were living before the storm. Money to $10,000 is available to replace essential personal goods such as clothing, kitchen items, furniture, etc. You might get a little money for a TV or fancy stereo but, as these are not essential, not much. You will probably get more for a loan than a grant. Essentials medical items (eye glasses, dentures, etc) are covered. Your house or business is also probably covered up to large amounts of money. You will need to apply separately to your insurance company (if you have one), FEMA and SBA. That should take even longer than getting your driver’s license used to. We heard that (800) 462-9029 will connect you with disaster relief applications but have not been able to get through and see what they have to offer. Rumor has it that VITELCO can’t handle 800 numbers. Maybe they don’t know how to bill for them. --- Irie Ideas --- DPNR requests Naval chain be laid down for the marine community. Create a boat dump site (no deeper than 60 feet) that will become a dive attraction.. Getting the word out to national media that STX is alive, well and ready for your tourist dollar. STX doesn’t really need the same curfew as our disturbed sister island, STT. * Who de Cruzan Possé dem? With Gilligan (Kevin Moran), the skipper too, a millionaire and his wife, a movie star (Marilyn), the Professor (Charles Balch) and Mary Ann (Eileen Foran). Technical Credits: Victoria Prehn. We are not official in any way. H:\!DOCS\MSOFFICE\WINWORD\TEMPLATE\NORMAL.DOT LETTERS FROM THE EDGE Charles V. Balch Charles V. 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