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H:\!DOCS\MSOFFICE\WINWORD\TEMPLATE\NORMAL.DOT LETTERS FROM THE EDGE Charles V. Balch Charles V. Balch Cruzan Breeze Written by the Cruzan Possé Completely Unofficial St. Croix News Sunday, Noon, September 23 Doing better than yesterday! Keep helping each other. Stay positive. Eat. --- Blatant Editorial --- Where do you live and work today? For most of us the answer is a reduced version of conditions of two weeks ago. Your home needs work but is livable. Your job has reduced hours but is there. Most of us are very fortunate. My estimate is that 20% of us on STX are not so lucky. Some rolled snake eyes and lost both home and job. Take people in! My boat and the fortress I watch are still habitable. I have guests in both. It is a small hardship for me to give up my usual somewhat hermetic existence. But nothing like the hardship my guests are going through. There are many tales of homes with lower apartments where the upper area was destroyed. People who live in these lower apartments are being displaced with nowhere to go. We have to find a better solution. Government disaster relief workers are compounding the problem. Still local hotels must be glad to receive the revenue and we need these people. On STT, we heard FEMA is packing them in 4-5 persons to the room so as to minimize their demand for space. Good for you. Shower with a friend. Consider the business that can no longer afford rent. Perhaps the inventory is gone, the building unusable or customers gone. We’re talking no cash flow. But that works both ways. The landlord needs to eat to. SBA will probably help with loans but the issue is now. We would like to hear solutions. Check with your bank for deferral of mortgage payments. What is legal here? Can you be kicked out if you have a lease, can’t pay, etc? Is there a rent moratorium? Usually it takes 60 days. Let’s work this out. --- Eyewitness STT Report --- The following is a stream of consciousness report from Victoria Prehn, owner of PC Paradise (773-9227), who went to STT to check up on her business there. “Not that I’ve ever been to Beirut, but I think STT looks something like that.” Almost every house and business is missing a roof. Every door, every window is blown out. A friend told me that the wall was picked up two feet and set the rebar into the ground. At least ten sources said they clocked winds up to 210 and a few claimed gust of 300. Its obvious that tornadoes went through there. The airport is not as bad as described. The terminal has a roof but the ceiling is hanging. Parts of Nisky Center look like a bomb hit it. Palm Passage is missing a whole floor. International Plaza where Hard Rock Cafe is has huge holes in the side of the building. Grande Hotel survived well. Hotel 1829 is very bad “Its like no one touched it since 1829.” Could not see Government House because the roads were so blocked with rubble. From Mafolie Estates, the view of town shows that no home has a roof. [Government is providing blue tarps to cover damaged roofs.] Flying over the islands, you can count the number of houses that lost roofs and are livable by the blue tarps. Flying on Saturday, there were no blue tarps to see on STT. Havensite Mall looks good. Lockhart Gardens and the old Internal Revenue are rubble. The hospital is as bad we heard but the field hospital is in. Did not venture to Tutu or Red Hook for fear of safety and this reporter is not scared of much. As of Thursday, curfew was not being enforced. On Friday it was obvious that more troops were on island and that road blocks were in effect. Reports of looting were confirmed and worse than reported. My understanding is that 2,500 people ransacked Grand Union. Some with guns. Kids are riding around on new bicycles. Almost every space in Havensight and Downtown was looted. My landlord needed major hardware to personally fend off a 100 people for four nights at Buccaneer Mall. Talking to a lot of people at the airport, STT is described as equivalent to St. Martin. Think about those poor persons who are not getting the assistance that we are. Was talking to an FBI agent who said that we [STT] look better than Florida looked after Andrew. And they have one of the strictest building codes in the states. Concrete poles [in Florida] were reduced to rubble. No part of the island is less than severely damaged. The consensus is that there will be no business for at least three months. Rumor has it that Fat Tuesday and Hard Rock will not re-open. Mary Anns is moving inventory off island. Many downtown business owners, out of fear of their own security, will be leaving island. On Wednesday, a friend was shot at while trying to get home with his girlfriend cause they had gasoline tanks in their car. All of the traveling nurses have gone home. The hospital has been condemned. Overheard something about a severe viral outbreak. They were asking boat owners to get their boats off the street and the owners do not have the money or method. They are continually finding dead bodies and it is said that 70 people are still missing. It’s hard to understand how the destruction can be so bad when we are only 40 miles apart. Maybe it’s because STX was so destroyed by Hugo [and we were built back better - average house on STT is 35 years old]. There has been a lot of negative talk from Cruzans saying that STT deserved it and I hope that we can rise above this attitude. Our economy as a whole is fragile. Our government is nearly bankrupt. I hope we can get together and help our neighboring island in its time of need. Regardless of how STT treated us after Hugo. We need to join forces and use the increased tourism to our mutual advantage. Personally, out of fear of looting, heavy damage to the store, landlord demanding immediate rent, and obvious slow economy, we have temporally moved all inventory and services to STX. I have a huge inventory and am offering fantastic sales on computers, printers and associated goods. Special thanks to Boelke Airlines, John Wessel, Tropical Shipping & Charlie’s Trucking for all of their kind-hearted assistance in my time of need. --- How ting? --- STT has major problems: Troops keep rolling in, there is a major presence from the VI Police, US Army, Federal Marshals, National Guard, FBI, Forest Service, Corp. of Engineers, Charleston Police Department and the Border Patrol. We’re talking road blocks and roving patrols. I may have missed a group, it sounds like we’ll be seeing the Ninja Turtles and Rescue Rangers soon. All are very welcome. On STX things are very good (considering). We guess about 40% destruction. Curfew is 8 PM to 6 AM and even that may be a bit much. People are pretty much keeping to it. Reported high theft rates in Frederiksted are not unusual. What are the current stats for power, phones etc.? Our airport is open. Reports are that all VITELCO and WAPA restoration efforts focus on STX. Lots of raw sewage was released, stay out of the ocean. Swimming is banned. Sort your debris. Metal, organics and household goods are handled differently. Don’t touch wires. Don’t allow mosquitoes to breed. --- Current Weather --- Whew, weather is not easy to come by. I called my Dad in the states and had him take notes off the weather channel. Thanks John Balch! “Essentially we have no immediate or mid-term worries. We will continue to have showers but less than yesterday. There is a huge low to the NE of us. The stuff that just passed us may continue to develop into a tropical depression. There are two tropical waves moving in tandem off the coast Africa. They are moving at 5 knots which is slow. There is some deep low convection and swirl but no circulation. West winds are shearing the waves and should discourage development. Pressures have not dropped which is another reason that systems should not develop. Water spouts were reported near PR. Visually there is no yellow or oranges.” Thanks much Dad!. --- We heard --- Carambola is not going to re-open. The Daily News says government estimates 3 billion dollars in damages which will probably rise. This figure is twice Hugo’s. We tried the line at Pearl B. Larsons yesterday to see what things were like and pass out some newsletters. Despite being officially closed for the day there were sandwiches and lots of smiles. We continue to hear tales of backdoor distribution to relief workers. Apparently many cases of lanterns went bush before they got to the people yesterday. We hope, if true, the recipients were as needy as the persons in line being denied or delayed. If not, this is the worst form of looting and should be treated as such. Distribution is still a problem on both islands. VITEMA has contractors covering roofs for free (with blue tarps). They are covering neighborhood by neighborhood. You can’t sign up at a central location anymore. Someone who lives at the house must be present to authorize the repair (renters OK but neighbors are not). This seems a good solution to the tarp distribution problem. The first FEMA center opens on Monday at Sion Farm. We have not heard that there were any problems but be careful what you sign from adjusters and insurance companies. --- Hall of Fame --- All a we. The STX community is hanging together and responding heroically. Governor Roy you’re doing an incredible job. 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 (at least a couple of months). The ice cream folks at five corners who gave it all a way. The folks at Hess are getting very mixed reviews. Apparently many promises are made and broken. Gotta love those HAM radio operators. They provided communication when no one else could. Trey Parnell. --- Talk about de money --- Oh boy do we have news. You can dial the Teleregistration form a land line if you first dial ATT at 102880. Ask for the FEMA teleregistration desk at (800) 462-9029. That’s a Breeze exclusive! Here is what happened when we registered. It took about 1/2 an hour. They are going to want to know your: Name, SS#, time of the disaster (Friday, Sept. 15, Evening), physical and mailing address including zip, damages to your Auto, roof, electrical power, Heating/AC, plumbing, access to your home, foundation, windows/doors, floor/ceiling, clothing, furniture, if you own the location, is it livable, what money you have already spent, if you’re in immediate danger, if you have insurance, who was living there at the time of the storm, your source(s) of income, how much you make and whether you own a business that was affected. Be sure to ask for your control number right away (before they start with all the questions) as you may get cut off and you will need it later to follow your application. Also ask the name of the person you are working with and their number. Be friendly - they are. You will be informed of what other programs are applicable to you like DHA (Disaster Housing Assistance) and SBA (Small Business Administration). Later you will need to provide physical proof of home ownership, pictures, receipts and such. --- Who dat mon? --- Isle 95 is doing a great job focusing on STX. Lucky 13 (AM 1340) is the official disaster coverage station. The focus is on STT. Post Office is now bringing in first class or better mail. Red Cross is good for food, shelter and messages to the outside world. They are focusing on STT. VITELCO is doing a great job. Cellular systems are pretty much completely back. It helps to be independent of telephone poles. ATT is offering free call to anywhere in the world - if you get to one of their offices. You have to work with them to get an 800 number call 102880. Call VITEMA at 773-2244 for central assistance. They coordinate everything and will remove roadside debris. --- Irie Ideas --- DPNR requests Naval chain be lain 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. Let’s use the more durable concrete telephone poles as we rebuild. Better yet, put everything underground. FEMA would probably help pay for them. --- Who de Cruzan Possé dem? --- With Gilligan (Kevin Moran), the skipper too, a movie star (Marilyn), the Professor (Charles Balch) and Mary Ann (Eileen Foran). Technical Credits: Victoria Prehn. Victoria gets are Brenda Star award for heroic coverage of STT. My dad really appreciates her personal visit to his mostly intact home. We are not official in any way. --- Breeze Info --- We are dug into a concrete bunker on the East end of STX. PC Paradise is acting as our center of communication. Voice is 773-9227, fax 773-9228. We’re doing this because we think it is a good way to help the community. Many people do not have time to monitor all the news. We hope the Breeze answers your pressing questions. Our feedback has been very good. Now up to almost two pages! We do our best to be accurate but the facts are changing by the hour. Call with corrections. There is a fax distribution list. To speed things up, we do not include graphics on faxes. You can call us at the above number to be included on the fax list. Our resources limit us to about 100 copies and 20 faxes a day. We now publish only once a day. We guess that about 1,500 people a day are reading us. This is not copyrighted. Feel free to copy and redistribute. Love to all! Normal Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6 Default Paragraph Font Header Footnote Text List Table Footnote Reference Bibliography Example Quote Question Answer wfxRecipient wfxFaxNum Heading UVZc0 Telecom_Out Telecom_In Page_Heading wfxDate Title_Heading wfxTime wfxSubject Footer Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOC Charles V. Balch H:\!DOCS\BREEZE7.DOCÿ@HP LaserJet 4/4M LPT1: HPPCL5E HP LaserJet 4/4M HP LaserJet 4/4M Symbol Palatino Book Antiqua Courier Courier New LETTERS FROM THE EDGE Charles V. Balch Charles V. Balch