Daily News Photo by SIMONIA ATHANASE-DAGOU The hillside beneath a house under construction on St. John gave way Wednesday, toppling the building.

Hurricane Omar took a bead on the Virgin Islands on Wednesday night but veered off just enough to spare the territory from serious damage.

What would become a Category 3 storm after it brushed the east end of St. Croix then turned northeast and traveled a safe distance from St. Thomas and St. John as it accelerated north to the Atlantic.

St. Croix saw the worst of the storm and the island lost power just as Omar approached. The islandwide blackout began about 8:30 p.m. after a fault in the grid shut down generators at the Richmond Power Plant.

Following the storm, residents were quick to get out their rakes, mops and saws to begin the cleanup in their communities.

On St. Croix, the hurricane mostly downed a few power lines, lamp poles, fences and dozens of trees along Queen Mary and Melvin Evans highways, making it difficult to pass. Motorists - many of whom were out violating curfew just to see what was going on - had to zigzag through the obstacle course of mahogany trees that blocked passage on the roads.

Daily News Photo by CHRIS WALSH A horse is tied to a tree on a back road near the race track as Hurricane Omar approaches.

A few boats in Christiansted Harbor sank during the storm.

VITEMA deputy director Jaqueline Heyliger said her St. Croix office was operating in low level operation. There were no critical calls during the night as the storm passed.

She said a few residents called VITEMA to report trees down during the storm and a few people requested to move from their homes after the storm had passed but it was too late.

"We could not risk the lives of our emergency staff at that point, they were already hunkered down to ride out the storm," she said.

By 10 a.m. Thursday, most of St. Coix was still without power and generators could be heard humming from many corners of the island.

At the only Red Cross shelter, in the Educational Complex gym, 85 people spent the night. This morning, as they realized the damage was minimal, many began packing up their belongings and waiting for the curfew to be lifted so that they could return to their homes.

Hubert Lee, 13, and his family left their home in Calquohoun and spent the night at the gym. He said he had expected a bad storm and was afraid, but in the end it worked out OK.

"We were playing Nintendo for most of the night, then we were talking, then we went to sleep" he said. "It was kind of fun."

On St. Thomas, The Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency was in full swing before the storm hit, although the atmosphere at the St. Thomas command center remained relaxed and calm.

About two dozen emergency service coordinators - designated representatives from each government agency - stayed for the night, catching naps on the floor or watching television and movies to pass the time.

Karen Kline, motor pool fleet superintendent for Property and Procurement, just returned from a week of Homeland Security incident command training.

"Doing this now, I'm hearing the same key words we just learned," Kline said. "It's the real thing, it's got my adrenaline really flowing."

Steve Parris, VITEMA deputy director for the St. Thomas-St. John district, conducted briefings every three hours, updating those at the command center with the latest movements of the storm and how the weather was affecting the territory's infrastructure.

No major problems were reported on either St. Thomas or St. John.

After the 5 a.m. briefing, Parris organized the emergency service coordinators and conducted an initial sweep of the island. One party did a tour of the North Side, one group went to the East End and the third group traveled west toward Bordeaux.

While a few small trees and some rocks and sticks cluttered the road, damage was minimal and the roads were mostly clear this morning.

As government vehicles with flashing lights moved in a caravan across the island, the air smelled like freshly cut grass and bright green leaves littered the road like confetti.

After daybreak, residents began to venture out to assess the damage caused by the storm. As the initial VITEMA teams toured the island, they passed homeowners out with machetes hacking away at torn tree limbs and fallen foliage.

One cable had snapped and was hanging in a giant curlicue along Hull Bay Road, but it was not a live power line and posed no danger.

"The initial assessment looks pretty good, we saw some scattered areas of debris, a few downed trees and one loose cable," Parris said. "It seems we were spared the brunt of Omar, but we'll know more after the full assessment."

Government agencies will conduct their own full assessments of their property and assets.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Tim Grant said after completing search and rescue sweeps, the agency will assess the condition of the ports to determine if they can be reopened.

Joseph Sibilly, deputy superintendent for the St. Thomas-St. John school district, said that the principals of each school in the territory will visit their facilities and make a report to the district superintendent.

In addition to the principals, the Department of Education will send out teams to conduct a territorywide damage survey report.

"The point is to get schools open as soon as possible," Sibilly said.

V.I. Water and Power Authority personnel are scrambling today to get power restored to Luis Hospital, which has been running on its own generator power since 8:30 Wednesday night.

As Hurricane Omar churned closer to the territory, whipping it with rain and wind, a malfunction in the power grid shut down WAPA's network on putting St. Croix in a complete blackout as the storm approached, utility spokeswoman Cassandra Dunn said.

"The plant took a significant hit," she said.

Once the system went down, WAPA employees scrambled to get power restored at the Richmond Power Plant by attempting to restart one of the generation units, but the weather was too bad.

"Rain was blowing into the unit and we did not want to compromise the safety of the unit," Dunn said.

WAPA officials decided to leave the power system on St. Croix down for the duration of the storm, she said, and informed Gov. John deJongh Jr. of their decision.

"Our first priority is to get the hospital and the airport online," Dunn said.

As of presstime today, WAPA officials were still not sure what caused St. Croix's power network to fail.

Today, WAPA crews are out in force territorywide dealing with downed power lines, blown transformers, and broken tree limbs on power lines.

"Definitely, there is work to do," Dunn said.

As of presstime today, areas on the Northside and East End of St. Thomas and some areas of St. John remained without power.

Dunn warned that the public should not touch any downed power lines.

Residents should call WAPA's hotlines with problems at 713-WAPA on St. Croix, and 777-WAPA on St. Thomas and St. John.

At Luis Hospital on St. Croix, 11 or 12 patients were admitted during the emergency period Wednesday and early Thursday, said Reuben Molloy, hospital vice-president for ancillary services and incident commander.

They included a pregnant woman who called for help late Wednesday. Emergency Medical Services brought her in. Molloy did not know Thursday morning if she had had her baby yet.

"We're doing fine. Aside from the leaks, we don't have any damage to speak of," Molloy said Thursday morning. "We're concentrating on relieving the staff, who worked 12 - some even 24 - hours."

Luis was still on generator power Thursday morning, after electricity went down island-wide on St. Croix around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Getting WAPA-generated power back to the hospital was a priority, although Molloy said generator fuel had been topped off before the storm, giving the hospital power to run on the generator for up to 10 days.

On St. Thomas, Schneider Hospital had one admission through the night - a man who fell in his home - and it was not storm-related, said Sam Topp, hospital spokesman.

Topp said that at least two hemodialysis patients on the way to the hospital Thursday morning for their treatments - along with a number of employees - were stopped by police while driving when the emergency curfew was still in effect, because they did not carry the identification badges issued to them by the hospital.

"Everybody's saying they're going to the hospital," he said. "If they don't carry the badges, the police are not going to let them proceed."

Topp said the hospital sent people to pick up patients and staff who were stopped at checkpoints.

"Everything at the hospital otherwise is normal," he said.

Late Thursday morning, the territory's air and sea ports were not fully operational, but commercial airline service to King and Rohlsen airports is likely to restart later today.

King Airport's runway reopened to traffic at 7:22 a.m. Thursday. The terminal remained closed while essential airline, airport operations and airport security staff make their way to work.

As of 9:45 a.m., Rohlsen Airport had not reopened because there were no air traffic control personnel on site.

Passengers should directly contact airlines for flight information and status.

The territory's seaports were still closed to all marine traffic Thursday morning. Once the U.S. Coast Guard completes its assessment and deems the harbors cleared, the ports can reopen.

A briefing is scheduled for this afternoon to provide more details about the storm and recovery efforts as the territory works to get back to normal.

- Daily News staff writers Joy Blackburn, Tim Fields, Aldeth Lewin, Megan Poinski and Fiona Stokes contributed to this report.