Virgin Islanders Stay Vigilant as Storm Tammy Approaches

Read Time:2 Minute, 46 Second

(TNS) – Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. and Daryl Jaschen, V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency director, urged Virgin Islands to stay vigilant as Tropical Storm Tammy advances and strengthens.

Jaschen said during a press briefing on Thursday afternoon that the storm was expected to continue moving west-northwest through Thursday night before veering northwest on Friday and eventually taking a sharp northward turn along the Lesser Antilles over the weekend.

No tropical storm watch or warning has been issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is expected to receive between one and two inches of rain over the weekend, with a possible maximum of four inches.

During the briefing, Bryan said Tropical Storm Tammy presented a “precarious situation” and possible environmental hazard because of the impact swells could have on the M/V Bonnie G, a grounded 195-foot cargo vessel south of King Airport.

A vessel from Louisiana is scheduled to arrive next week — weather permitting — to discharge the Bonnie G’s fuel.

“Because the ship is so heavy that we can’t pull it off of the reef right now. But what we don’t want to happen, we don’t want to have rough seas or anything dislodge that vessel,” Bryan said, adding that U.S. Coast Guard crews were doing everything in their power to secure the cargo ship, which Bryan said was wedged hard against the reef.

“So it probably would not move during the storm, but you never know. That is a concern of ours,” he said.

A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said crews are monitoring the storm and taking every precaution for the safety of their responders and the environment.

Tammy is expected to be at near-hurricane strength this weekend, intensifying to hurricane strength by Monday, according to a National Hurricane Center forecast issued Thursday morning.

NHC forecasters expect Tammy to gradually strengthen thanks to very warm water temperatures despite facing some dry air and wind shear. Tammy’s wind speeds are expected to reach 70 mph by Sunday and 80 mph by Monday. If its maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph or above, Tammy would be a hurricane.

So far this season in the Atlantic, there have been 19 named storms, six of which were hurricanes. Of those, three were major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above.

Those were Hurricane Lee, a rare Category 5; Hurricane Franklin, a Category 4; and Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region at Category 3 strength on Aug. 30.

The remaining storm names for 2023 are Vince and Whitney. If all those names end up being used this season, the National Hurricane Center would turn to the supplemental list of names from the World Meteorological Association.

In previous years, the Greek alphabet was used for additional storm names — which had only happened twice before — during the record-shattering hurricane seasons in 2005 and 2020.

Hurricane season officially runs through Nov. 30.