Power outages have been commonplace in the U.S. Virgin Islands dating back to the 1960s and beyond. Millions of dollars have been poured into the Water and Power Authority (WAPA) to keep the lights on, but the system continues to operate on life support.
In fairness, the autonomous government agency, created in 1964, inherited a beleaguered, antiquated water and power system from the federal government. However, public records show that WAPA has exacerbated the utility’s financial and physical condition by accumulating massive debts and deferring maintenance of critical infrastructure. WAPA also has a history of mismanagement by seemingly well-intended, but misguided, or ill-equipped executives who often operated under a cloak of secrecy.
The Virgin Islands Government, WAPA’s largest customer, has contributed to its financial woes. Several government agencies repeatedly failed to pay their huge utility bills, but they too are holding on for dear life, including the territory’s two hospitals. As a result, the governor and Legislature have been forced to not only bail out the hospitals and other agencies to save WAPA but also bail out WAPA time and time again. It is a vicious cycle because the more the government spends to subsidize WAPA, the less money it has to maintain quality health care and other essential services.
All of this begs the question, how long do WAPA and the government expect residents to bear the mental, physical and financial cost of a poorly maintained, dilapidated monopoly that has failed them for generations and squandered taxpayers’ money through mismanagement and bad contracts without accountability?
At a recent contentious town hall meeting on St. John, following a three-day, island-wide blackout in March, frustrated residents expressed concern about the persistent power outages and empty promises from WAPA. Even though WAPA’s Executive Director Karl Knight explained that this outage was caused by the intentional cutting of a high-voltage transmission line rather than equipment failure, this was of little comfort to residents who were outraged by WAPA’s lack of security.
Several residents told Knight they are “exhausted,” because the solutions he presented to create a more resilient electrical system are the same “solutions” they have heard for years. This sentiment is echoed by Virgin Islanders across the territory who have lost food, medication, appliances, and income due to lengthy power outages, and whose livelihoods and the lives of their children have been upended by the closure of schools and businesses.
Residents’ angst is compounded by above-average utility bills and gas prices that predate the Israel and U.S.-led war in Iran but have surged even higher since the war began. Virgin Islanders are also saddled with extremely high food and housing costs. The looming threat of hurricanes is also unnerving, as WAPA appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse ahead of hurricane season, which begins in June.
Some residents are still reeling from the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which struck the territory in 2017, damaging thousands of homes and critical infrastructure, including WAPA’s fragile water and power system, and leaving residents in the dark for three to five months. People who rely on the public water system have the added stress of frequent water outages.
According to a 2025 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, WAPA’s electricity rate is “almost three times higher than the U.S. national average.” Yet, WAPA officials act like they are doing residents a favor by not raising their rate when residents cannot get reliable service, and many complain about being overcharged due to estimated billing.
Despite residents’ pleas for compensation for the financial losses they have suffered, Knight has said it is not possible because WAPA’s operational expenses exceed its revenues. EY-Parthenon, a consulting firm commissioned by the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority to do an assessment of WAPA’s operations, revealed in its initial assessment, dated Jan. 29, 2025, that “WAPA may be operating in the zone of insolvency,” and “its liquidity appears to be insufficient to pay its obligations as they become due without government funding support.”
It is time for WAPA officials to reimagine the way they engage with the community, particularly the territory’s growing elderly population, the disabled, and Black and Hispanic communities who have higher poverty rates and bear the brunt of ongoing power outages. They do not have the resources to purchase a generator or install solar panels, or to immediately replace spoiled food and medication, and some depend on electricity to operate at-home medical devices, so they are at the mercy of WAPA.
Power and water outages are not just an economic issue. Outages are a public health and safety issue, which Kyle Fleming, the director of the Virgin Islands Energy Office, not only acknowledged on April 20 at a news conference, but also provided a plan to help 900 “medically vulnerable” residents during power outages. Fleming said his office is working with the Department of Human Services to identify these individuals and distribute portable battery systems to them, which they can use to power medical devices, refrigerators and other equipment.
This pilot project will cost about $1.6 million in federal funds, and it will allow the government to gather the data needed to apply for additional federal funds to expand and continue the program, Michael Jaffurs, the Energy Office’s deputy director, said Monday.
This is a commendable — albeit long overdue — initiative that exemplifies what is possible when agencies partner to develop creative solutions for the public good. Research shows poor living conditions can lead to poor health outcomes, health disparities and premature deaths.
Instead of burying their heads in the sand, WAPA needs to follow suit by establishing a public-private partnership to develop a sustainable emergency response plan to alleviate and prevent the mental, physical, and financial anguish caused by decades-long power and water outages.
The plan should include a team of health care professionals, and representatives from the Departments of Health and Human Services, VITEMA, nonprofit organizations, and businesses that benefit from tax breaks.
WAPA should also reach out to members of the clergy for assistance. The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund religion in need of new blood.”
If such a team were in place and mobilized during the blackout on St. John and the lengthy rotating power outages on St. Thomas, WAPA could have sent out nurses to do welfare checks and assist people in need of medication or medical care. Human Services and churches could have provided hot meals and bottled water, and VITEMA could have partnered with local businesses to establish a cooling station equipped with compact portable battery power stations where people could cool off, heat up food, or recharge cell phones and other equipment.
This is what I envision, and it is doable. All it takes is the political will, a thoughtful, coordinated emergency response plan, and a team of emergency responders who are willing to volunteer or provide in-kind services.
WAPA executives also need to stop hiding behind press releases and be more accessible to the public and journalists to avoid misinformation by holding more town hall meetings and regular news conferences that allow the media to attend in person, virtually, and via audio conferencing. Although WAPA provides updates of outages via email and text, this is not an effective means of communication in a crisis when the internet is down. Also, people who are more likely to suffer from outages may not have access to the internet. Even if they do, they may not know how to navigate it.
Knight promised to bring in a new era of transparency and “rebuild trust.” However, it is still difficult to obtain public records from WAPA. I submitted a Public Records Request to WAPA, under the V.I. Public Records statute, on May 13, 2024. To date, I have not received the bulk of the records I requested. The lack of transparency by WAPA and other government agencies, namely the Departments of Health, Planning and Natural Resources, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, and the Police Department, only fuels widespread distrust.
Furthermore, impeding journalists’ ability to gather, verify, and report the news is a disservice to the public, not to mention, a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
At a minimum, senators should require public officials to testify under oath when they appear before the Legislature, which they have the authority to do under the Virgin Islands Code, 2 V.I.C. § 4. This way, officials can be penalized for making false statements. The Legislature should also revamp the territory’s archaic public records laws to increase transparency by imposing stiffer penalties for noncompliance and holding officials personally liable for withholding public records.
Since the hurricanes, the federal government has allocated unprecedented funds to strengthen WAPA’s infrastructure and replace two generation units in the St. Thomas-St. John plant. Federal funds have also been allocated to replace St. Croix’s power plant and the V.I.’s entire water distribution system, but these two projects will take years to complete. Meanwhile, residents’ health will continue to be compromised.
WAPA officials can and must do more to address the human toll of outages. They cannot carry on as is and expect weary residents to hang on to what many fear is a sinking ship, to their detriment, without adequate life preservers.
— Shirley L. Smith, a native of St. Thomas, is an independent investigative journalist focused on social justice issues.
