Virgin Islands spared worst of hurricane

Trees downed, flooding reported

CHRISTIANSTED, US Virgin Islands - Hurricane Omar fell apart at sea yesterday after delivering a glancing blow to the US Virgin Islands and lashing St. Croix, its most populated island, with rain.

The powerful core of the storm passed overnight between St. Martin and the US and British Virgin Islands, said Lixion Avila, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"It could have been worse," Avila said. "They were very, very lucky."

Omar knocked down trees, caused some flooding, and minor mudslides in the US Virgin Islands, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage, said Mark Walters, director of the disaster management agency for the territory.

A last-minute shift to the east spared St. Croix.

The nearby British Virgin Islands also emerged largely unscathed, said Deputy Governor Inez Archibald, noting there was little damage beyond some mudslides and scattered debris.

"We did reasonably well actually," Inez said. "We did not get what we expected."

The island's international airport reopened yesterday afternoon, but the Virgin Gorda airport remained closed because of flooding.

At least 30 people were evacuated in Antigua, where emergency officials in boats rescued people stranded on their roofs as flood waters rose. An estimated 75 people remained in shelters.

Omar was taking an unusual southwest-to-northeast track toward the central North Atlantic, well away from the US mainland. It was expected to become a tropical storm by today, according to the hurricane center.

Cleanup crews fanned out yesterday across several flooded Caribbean islands, where power and water were slowly being restored.

Ports in Puerto Rico reopened, but remained closed in St. Croix.

In St. Maarten, roads were flooded and littered with tree branches and other debris, but authorities lifted a curfew yesterday afternoon and planned to reopen the main airport today.

On the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, which was brushed by the storm, people returned home from shelters where they spent the night and awaited the resumption of ferry service to the mainland of the US island territory.