Biking and the Unaccredited Hospital

So that I could participate in triathlons here in the Caribbean, I bought a road bike a few months ago. Our roads are quite hilly and steep, as I'm sure we've mentioned. For my first few rides, I rode along the waterfront towards the airport - a nice wide, straight, flat road. Drivers are not used to seeing bikers on the road, and we certainly do not have any bike lanes here. (I think between Dave and I, we know of or have seen only six or seven other people who ride on the island, out of fifty thousand.) It's best to go riding very early in the morning, preferably on a Sunday, to avoid cars.

When I was in Arizona back in July I bought a trainer - something you put your bike on that essentially turns your regular bike into a stationary bike. It's given me a lot more opportunities to ride, as I can train when it's raining or after 7am if I don't want to get up early. I've ridden on the roads just a few times since then, mostly because we kept getting lots of rain. The St. John Love City triathlon is over Labor Day weekend though, and it has plenty of ego-busting hills. So last week I decided it was time to get out and attach some hills.

I usually walk from our home, down the steep driveway, then up the steep one lane road we live on to get to the main road. Saturday morning I decided to try riding up the steep end of our road, but I had to walk the last 10 feet because it was just too steep. I rode for an hour and a half out near Peterborg Point where I like to do my long runs. (I only traveled 9 miles due to all the hills!) Unfortunately, at the very end of my ride, I became stupid. I decided to ride down our road on the way home, rather than walking from the main road. Well, the road has a low spot and it was wet there. So, as I coasted downhill way too fast, I slipped on the wet concrete, fell into a puddle and cut open my knee. Luckily I was only 100 feet from home, so I called Dave who came and walked my bike up our driveway while I hobbled. It was fairly obvious I'd need stitches on my left knee (my white sock turned pink, how cute!) It was really not pretty. But Dave, the photographer, took a few photos to share. I'll refrain from uploading them now.

It should be fairly obvious by now that we are really less than thrilled with the standard of health care around here. The hospital on St. Thomas lost its accreditation in July. That actually made me feel a little better, given my prior experiences there. (It's not really clear to me, but some people think it regained its accreditation about a week later.) While I briefly considered having Dave stitch me up, it just didn't seem like the best idea. We called Olga, the assistant in my office who is super awesome and knows everything. She said we should go to the ER. We didn't listen to her, because last time I was there, I swore I would not return. So off to the only urgent care center that was open on a Saturday. After about 10 minutes at the urgent care center that had one receptionist and one doctor working, with quite a few people waiting, I decided I'd rather go to the ER. At the ER I was taken care of quickly and sewn up. With the exceptions of them getting my right and left legs mixed up momentarily and not checking me out for any other injuries, it wasn't too bad. Dave and I kept discovering more cuts, scrapes, and big bruises as the day progressed.

I'd have to say, the worst thing about having stitches is that I'm not allowed to go swimming for two weeks -- in August! It's pretty darn hot at home in the afternoons without air condititioning. Since the St John triathlon is less than three weeks away, I've got a decent excuse to avoid those hills. I'm still planning on doing a triathlon on St. Croix later in September - it's flatter there!

Dave has been up to very exciting things lately, so I'll try to convince him to post a blog soon!

Earthquakes and Tsunami Warnings

This morning we had a fairly large earthquake. It was a 5.0 according to USGS or a 5.2 if you believe the local online paper. Either way, it lasted a bit and was the first quake I've ever been in where I actually got up and walked to the doorway (after sitting at my desk thinking about it for awhile). There's a pretty decent map on the Puerto Rico Seismic Network website. St. Thomas is the island south of the yellow dot on the 65W line.

Earthquakes can trigger tidal waves. Everyone knows that. But, did you know we don't have a tsunami warning system in place on the island? Dave and I have been told it's because it would be futile as we'd likely have fewer than five minutes to prepare. Marty McFly would always be ready.... So the quake this morning brought up an important issue here. PRSN has been responding to concerned residents emails by urging them to contact our delegate to the House of Representatives "to pressure NOAA into funding a round-the-clock earthquake monitoring facility for the region." I'd settle for NOAA starting with a reliable round-the-clock weather radar.

Local Politics

Our governor's term is up this year, and many, many candidates have announced that they are running for the position. (I've lost count, but somewhere around a dozen seems right.) Rumor has it the USVI governor is the highest paid governor of all the United States. A man who lives on our street, a current senator, is running for governor too.

Today's paper explains how to get on the ballot for those interested in running for office this fall. There are sectional/divisional positions, which really means either you will represent St. Croix, or you'll represent both St. Thomas and St. John. I can't think of any such positions other than a senatorship. Those running for the legislature need 25 signatures if you've got party support, otherwise 50 are required. For a territory-wide position, you need 50 signatures if you're running with a party, otherwise you need 100 (50 from each section). A little different than those 3,000 signatures everyone needed to get on the California gubernatorial/recall ballot in 2003. I'd run but, of course, in my current line of work I can't be involved in politics. One of the perks for the senators is a government car -- on both St. Thomas and St. Croix.

There is still a movement to create a Supreme Court for the territory, but there's a big dispute about whether it should be on St. Thomas, where the capital is - or if it should be on St. Croix, where the economy could use the boost. The Legislature passed a bill to have it built on St. Croix, but the governor recently filed suit to have it built on St. Thomas instead.

In other exciting news, the Fifth Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention is scheduled for July 2007. The Virgin Islands have yet to draft their own constitution though Congress have given them permission to do so. Instead, the law of the land here is the Revised Organic Act, passed by Congress in 1954. Dave and I won't qualify to be convention delegates though as delegates will need to have been residents for at least three years.

A Near Miss

Chris passed by last night and this morning and the tropical storm force winds (greater than 39 mph; greater than 74 mph is a hurricane). So it was a "near miss" here. We did get plenty of rain. I'm not sure how much rain we got, but I was surprised that our road wasn't flooded, as there is a small dip that has had some water in it all week from last week's rain.The Hurricane Hunters investigated the storm and gave regular updates to the National Hurricane Center which were on the NHC website so that's how I tracked the storm. The storm moved further north than originally predicted, so we were not affected as much as expected. The weather reports in the newspaper here aren't even always in the paper, let alone very helpful. But I am hoping to find out how much rain we got...

The warnings sent lots of people shopping to stock-up on hurricane supplies. Dave and I have been prepared since last August though so I went straight home from work yesterday (before 2pm even!). The only extra thing I did was fill up the guest bathtub with water, since when we lose electricity, we have no water pump to supply us with water. The power company apparently implements a "three strike" rule during storms which means "in the event a feeder goes down, WAPA plant personnel will attempt to reenergize the feeder three times. After the third attempt, the power will remain off until the storm has passed ...." Our power went off a few times very briefly so I unplugged the TV and computers and curled up with some soursop tea and a good book before heading to bed early.

Flash flood warnings are still in effect and the sky is still dark. We'll get some more rain today too. But the cruise ships are back and the stores are open. And we're all back at work.

Tropical Storm Warning

A tropical storm warning has been issued for St Thomas regarding Tropical Storm Chris. A tropical storm watch was issued yesterday - which means a tropical storm is possible within the watch area in the next 36 hours or so. A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area in the next 12-24 hours. (The Bahamas has a hurricane watch right now as Chris is expected to head straight there.) The airport is now shut down too, as well as a lot of businesses. The two cruise ships that were supposed to be in port today went elsewhere, so Havensight Mall at the cruise dock is closed.

No storm yet, but the sky is grey and cloudy. This must be the calm before the storm. It's expected to get stronger and arrive north of St Thomas later this afternoon. It's predicted to become a hurricane later tomorrow morning when it's north of Puerto Rico. The shutters are up on our storm-side of the house.

We just had a court staff meeting at work. We're all supposed to secure loose papers (in case windows break) and get important things done so we can leave early. The judge is on vacation this week but he called to tell us to go home whenever we think we should. Dave is off island too so it's a good thing I've got some books to read!

Tropical Storm Chris

Chris is on his way. . . .



According to the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Chris is expected to hit the USVI late tonight and continue through tomorrow morning. As explained in NOAA's local hurricane statement, the storm was located about an hour ago, 320 miles east of St Thomas, so it's just getting started. My inexperienced guess is that it's a lot better to have a storm hit early on in the storm's life than later. Seas are expected to reach 8-9 feet and 3-6 inches of rain are expected tonight and tomorrow. Tropical storm force winds are expected near St Thomas and St John Wednesday morning. An Airforce reserve aircraft is doing recon this afternoon to check out the storm.