ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI

The good news is that all humans at ARTfarm (and other neighbors at Longford and Yellow Door Farm) survived the storm uninjured. 

It is day four. Our own homes at the farm maintained roofs and structural integrity but experienced flooding. We are still assessing damage at the farm, but the most obvious losses include the crucial seedling house, and the ARTbarn which were totally destroyed. There was some damage to the farmstand (still functional). Many of our pasture fences are blown over, damaged and down. A light duty trailer flipped onto a gate. One prize ram and two young ewes died, several chickens were killed (one chicken tractor coop was destroyed) but ALL the turkeys weathered the storm and are wandering around the farm (their enclosure came down and their house cartwheeled into a gut). Countless trees were lost – all leaves are gone from all trees and many snapped at the base or lost large primary limbs at the first fork. At least 40% of trees have major damage or loss including, sadly, our fruit trees. We are unsure about the immediate season’s plan.

We know little about the rest of the island except what we have heard from word of mouth from neighbors on foot or walking several miles around the farm. Until yesterday the roads were all blocked in by downed utility poles. The hurricane took a WNW course across the island, we have heard that the true eye was to the south of St. Croix by about 20 miles. Further west on the island there was more damage. Without Internet or phone communication of any kind, we know little about how the storm affected different parts of the island and neighboring islands, or if there have been any casualties. We have FM radio, and one station appears to be functioning and taking call-ins from local residents. There are long long lines just to get into grocery stores, and people are standing in the hot sun for several hours trying to get necessities. To post this message we had to drive into town during curfew hours to find a Wi-Fi signal. With heavy traffic, this takes a good chunk of the day. There are downed lines everywhere and driving is pretty treacherous.

Military planes continue to fly overhead, helicopters have buzzed us. 

Our immediate needs (which we would be happy to reimburse someone for) include a portable generator with a 220 V outlet to run the farm pump, another portable generator to keep other cold storage going, 4 heavy duty 100ft outdoor rated extension cords, a 14 inch Stihl chainsaw with extra chains and filters, and a Ryobi flashlight, Ryobi portable fans, single charger and two spare batteries of the “one +” 18v LiOn 4Ah Ryobi type. 

We are extremely grateful and blessed for being spared much worse damage. Many homes on St. Croix have lost roofs and although we have not heard of any storm related fatalities many people have lost much.

We will try to post again when we can. Love, ARTfarm

ARTfarm is on our annual fall hiatus for the next few weeks as we prepare the farm for the upcoming growing season and keep a watchful eye on the weather satellites for more storms that could come our way between now and November. Thanks to all our fantastic customers for your continued support of our family. We plan to reopen the farmstand, growing season permitting, in October/November.

We will post again soon with updated information on donating to relief efforts. While this acute phase is a crucial time, there will be ongoing efforts to recover that will take months if not years. We appreciate the outpouring of love and support from across the islands and globe for our well-being during the storm. 

Please, spread the word that St. Croix is alive and well after Hurricane Irma. Spread the amazing stories of our USVI community coming together selflessly to provide relief efforts. Encourage your friends and family to come and visit St. Croix and take a vacation here. Part of the recovery process is keeping our economy going as we assist St. Thomas and St. John and our other sister islands to get back on their feet as well. St. Croix is open for business! Thank you!


UPDATE 9/9/2017: Yvette Browne at Sejah Farm is coordinating St. Croix farmer/gardener/orchard produce donations. You can drop off farm produce, fresh fruit (nothing too too ripe or that needs refrigeration, of course) etc. She will be packing family sized boxes for the relief boats going over. Feel free to drop in and bring produce between 5 AM and 7 PM, and/or volunteer to help pack boxes, bring them to the docks etc.

The ARTfarm Saturday morning farmstand will be CLOSED tomorrow, September 9th. We are planning to donate our available produce or equivalent cash to Hurricane Irma relief efforts, either here on island at one of our community shelters, or via one of the citizen-organized ‘Crucian navy’ ships that have been making relief supply runs to St. Thomas and St. John, where devastation is widespread and communication very limited. Please, get involved. Here’s a couple of ways to help:

DONATE FAMILY ITEMS:

The Holley family are working in contact with Tots on the Rocks, a 1,700+ member family FB group for STT/STJ, to coordinate an effort for babies/ kids clothes/ necessities. They will be accepting donations at SEABORNE HANGER IN C’STED HARBOR this Saturday, starting at 8am.

Family Items of need:

Diapers/Wipes

Onesies

Good condition kids clothes for all ages

Distilled water

Good condition or new toys for all ages

Baby food/Formula/Bottles

Coloring books/ crayons

Bug repellent

Battery fans

Batteries

Mosquito nets 

Hand sanitizer

This is not an attempt to purge to rid of unwanted items. Please consider the condition of the items you want to donate.

They are still working on logistics with Caribbean Sea Adventures and Seaborne Airlines to get the items over there. Please know we need to support our Rock Moms. Anything helps. 

So thankful our families are all safe here in St. Croix and have an incredible community willing to help our sister islands. Now is the time to come together! #virginislandsstrong

DONATE RELIEF SUPPLIES:

Caribbean Sea Adventures has been collecting any and all kinds of relief donations at their Christiansted shop at 59 Kings Wharf between 8am and 5pm daily. They have been sending their tour boats over to our sister islands with supplies. Sarah Ridgway has also set up a go-fund-me account to purchase additional relief supplies and they have raised nearly $60,000 so far in the relief efforts for St. John and St. Thomas. https://www.gofundme.com/irma-relief-for-our-sister-islands

Seaborne Airlines is establishing a charity program: 9-08-17 SEABORNE CARES—RELIEF EFFORTS AND DONATIONS. “To all our customers and community members across the Caribbean, we appreciate all your calls and requests to provide relief to our Caribbean neighbors. Seaborne Airlines is working on reestablishing our operation for the movement of passengers along with monitoring Hurricane Jose for a possible impact on our network in the next few days. 

We are working on activating our Seaborne Cares program to establish relief flights, once authorities grant us permission and we are secure to land. Initial flights will primarily be to assist our employees at our destinations that have lost everything, including their homes. 

Once we have rescued our employees, we will be delivering supplies to US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua, and St. Maarten. We will be collecting supplies of water, canned food, medicines and first aid kits. We will work with appropriate authorities to distribute in the stations affected as our flight loads permit.

We will be accepting donations until September 17 from 10:00 am until 4:00 PM

Collection center USVI (St. Croix): Seaborne Airlines Seaplane Base, 1210 Watergut (Christiansted Harbor at the west end of the boardwalk)

Due to security reasons, we request all donations be brought in good condition boxes —not sealed and ready for inspection.

We thank all for your assistance during this tough times of our Caribbean neighbors. Together we stand strong!”

Just a quick note to let everyone know we are all OK at the ARTfarm. Thanks everyone for sending your positive vibes and prayers for our island. Please continue to support folks who suffered much worst damage in St. Thomas, Saint John, and the Leeward Islands. And for those still in the path of this storm as it heads west northwest.

On our hurricane farm wish list would be the loan of a generator for a few days so we can run our pump to water the farm. Two of our generators failed and the backup generator also failed. Also, we are in need of freshly collected dragonfruit pollen for tonight at 8:30. We know that one’s a long shot!

For safekeeping we put our prize turkey hen in one of the storage container trailers Tuesday night as the storm approached, and she laid an egg for us. Today we are on the seventh or eighth truckload so far to remove lots of large debris from trees, but the farm itself has sustained very little damage and only received about an inch of rain. We will post if we can open on Saturday. With Hurricane Jose brushing us on Sunday, we will wait and see. Stay tuned.