I heard that in an afternoon news conference held by the governor, the Port Authority director said the airports will close at noon Saturday to reopen sometime Sunday but he didn't know what time. The governor said he assumes the ferries will stop running late morning Saturday and they won't start running again until the Coast Guard inspects the ports and gives the all clear and it will take an hour after that for the ferries to get under way.

Also at 6PM tonight I was told the USCG were due to announce that the ports will be closed beginning at 6 am Saturday (I was not home at 6pm so I don't know if that announcement was made or not) so even if flights make it, it seems the ferry to STJ wil be closed (don't know if you were coming to STJ or just to STT) and they weren't sure when it would re-open - It will depend on when things settle after Maria passes.

Hope this helps some

Pia

Here's where you can find the latest orders and/or information. There's already a 7PM to 5AM curfew enacted.

http://www.governordejongh.com/jic/index.html

Thank you for the information....We are going into St.Thomas, so the ferry to STJ isn't a concern.... If you, or anyone else hears anything ...please post....Thanks so much

www.usviupdate.com is the tourism department's site with updates, particularly ones on flights, cruises, etc.

www.vialart.gov is another good site for official updates.

US Airways cancelled flights really early (around noon yesterday) for today, so I'm here an extra day since flights yesterday were sold out already, likely from folks trying to get out early.

We're leaving out of JFK (NY) tomorrow morning on American Airlines - hope they don't cancel the flight - I'll settle for a "Delay" !! lol

The situation here on St Thomas is kind of up in the air right now. Maria has diminished today but we're still expected heavy weather late tonight and into tomorrow. This storm has been quite hard to nail down as far as what it will produce though we are in line for a direct hit of whatever she brings. We're expecting very heavy rains tonight. It's actually been a very beautiful day here but experience says to stay hunkered down till she passes. Find below a link to the V.I. Emergency Management website, there you will find any watches/warnings or closures posted. Good luck getting here and if you do enjoy it while you can as there are other waves on deck waiting to take a crack at us. Sorry to say but Mid Sept is not the best time to travel here as you never know what can come up with storms. Though for the next week or so we should have some great weather here.

http://www.vitema.gov/

Fotoboy
St. Thomas USVI

From the VITEMA site........

"All Tropical Storm Warnings for the Virgin Islands have been discontinued as the circulation of Maria has become poorly defined. As a result of the 11 am advisory this morning, the previously imposed curfew in the territory set for tonight has been lifted as has the price freeze on commodity items.
At 11 a.m. today, the poorly defined center was located about 227 miles east southeast of St. John; about 219 miles east of St. Croix near 17.3 degrees north, 61.5 degrees west.

Movement is to the northwest at 15 miles per hour with top winds of 40 miles per hour. Weakening is forecast and Maria could become either a tropical depression or degenerate into a tropical wave later today.

Tropical storm force winds are occurring outward up to 200 miles over the open waters to the northeast of the center, well away from the territory. With the 11 a.m. advisory, none of the major land areas in the Virgin Islands are forecast to receive sustained tropical force winds.

Based on the current forecast track, what is left of the center of circulation will pass some 101 miles to the northeast of St. Croix around 11 pm tonight, 81 miles northeast of St. Thomas at 2am Sunday and 69 miles northeast of St. John also at 2 am Sunday.

While the territory is not forecast to receive sustained tropical storm force winds from Maria, gusty and breezy conditions will prevail across the islands through Sunday night. Rainfall activity will also be noted across the territory from Sunday into Monday as Maria passes to the northeast of the Virgin Islands."

Pia

Friggen FASTASTIC....keep up these awesome posts ! lol
Just get me there tomorrow (anytime)

It's 3:15 am on Sunday morning. I still have stars here at my house in STX, no wind, no rain. Maria has turned north and now it's just wait and see regarding what the effects will be. Is it December yet!??

ko923: Hope you made it safely. I know American Airlines cancelled flights still on Sunday, but everybody else was still flying. I had a little trouble catching my 5PM flight because strong tailwinds at the airports prevented larger planes from landing for a while, and anybody leaving on a major airline was doing so on a plane that just came in with a load of folks...so those planes couldn't land to pick those of us waiting up for a while. Fortunately US Airways did a quick turnaround and got us out pretty close to on time. Can't say the same for Delta, whose 3PM-ish flight didn't get off the ground til after 5PM after they circled for a while, ran out of gas, landed in Puerto Rico and finally came to STT once the tailwinds died down enough to land.