St Thomas Resort Slammed by Hurricane Dorian

St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was hit by Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday, August 28, prompting power outages, emergency curfews, and school, airport, and government building closures, local media reported.

Residents of the island were closely watching weather reports and were alerted by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) that Dorian had been upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane as it neared the islands.

Eric Olund was celebrating his anniversary with his wife at the Point Pleasant Resort on St Thomas when Dorian hit. The video Olund posted to Facebook was recorded from the couple’s suite and shows heavy rain and strong winds sweeping across the resort grounds, bending palm trees and making it dangerous to leave their hotel room.

“I could hear the windows rattling as we waited through the storm with only candlelight,” Olund told Storyful, after the island lost power and hotel guests were encouraged to remain indoors.

The Olunds said they are headed home to Florida and expect to go through this experience all over again during the Labor Day weekend, when Dorian was forecast to be near or over the state as a powerful hurricane.

Airports in the US Virgin Islands reopened at 7 am Thursday, according to the local media, and the curfew on St Thomas and St John was lifted at 8 am. Credit: Eric Olund via Storyful