ST. THOMAS — No measurable tsunami struck the territory early Thursday.
However, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the Caribbean did send a wave of panic spreading across the territory for a few hours late Wednesday. In Red Hook on St. Thomas, most bars and businesses closed about an hour early. Police radio traffic indicated residents began scrambling for high ground about 11:30 p.m.
At a radio address from St. Croix Government House on Wednesday, acting Gov. Osbert Potter suggested residents, battered by two Category 5 hurricanes a month apart in September, may have overreacted.
“This advisory caused a lot of havoc in the community, caused a lot of panic in the community,” he said. “My phone number is known to quite a few people in the community. The calls are coming in one after the other asking what is going on, what is happening. Everyone is in a state of potential panic.”
The National Tsunami Warning center issued its first advisory about 10:57 p.m. local time based on a magnitude-7.6 earthquake (initially reported as a 7.8). At 10:58 p.m., the center issued its first advisory specific to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. About an hour later, the Center updated the warning to say that any impact to the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico was likely to be less than a foot above the tide.
At 12:18 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Center canceled all previous advisories.
Advisories are more serious than tsunami watches, but less serious than tsunami warnings. The three categories are used only in the U.S. and Canada. The center issues only tsunami threats for other areas.
“The threat may continue for several hours after initial arrival, but significant inundation is not expected for areas under an advisory,” an explanation on the center’s website reads.
On police radio traffic, first responders argued with dispatchers trying to calm them, while police officers asked for help dealing with traffic on Mountain Top.
VITEMA issued its first notice of a possible tsunami shortly after the last message at 12:18 a.m., Barnes said.
VITEMA director Mona Barnes blamed faulty communications on St. Croix for the delay. Tsunami alerts arrive at the territory’s 911 Dispatch center on St. Thomas, Barnes said. From there, a second employee determines whether the advisory is serious enough to merit notifying the public. The second employee is normally able to access the software, which sends out text alerts over the VI Alert system via a phone link at home.
The employee was sleeping, and by the time he had woken and driven to the 911 center, national authorities had already issued their advisory canceling the prior alerts, Barnes said.
“I hade the decision to go ahead and send it as is with the cancellation,” she said.
Many people — including staffers for The Daily News — did not receive even the cancellation notice.
VITEMA manages 32 tsunami warning sirens around the territory, Potter said. They don’t work, Potter said.
“The sirens would not be activated unless there was a warning, and we did not get to that point,” he said. “The 32 sirens are all damaged.”
Instead, police cars will use bullhorns and public announcement systems and drive around local neighborhoods in the event of a siren, Potter said.
Four of the 32 sirens are damaged beyond repair, while the others can be repaired, Barnes said. Barnes did not give an expected date for them to be fully restored.
— Contact Brian O’Connor at 340-714-9130 or email boconnor@dailynews.vi.
