The University of the Virgin Islands is monitoring Hurricane Irma, a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. According to the National Hurricane Center’s 2 p.m. advisory, Hurricane Irma was located near latitude 18.5 North, longitude 37.8 West. Irma is moving toward the west-northwest near 13 miles per hour. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands at this time.
Out of an abundance of caution, UVI employees are advised to secure their work areas before leaving for the Labor Day holiday weekend. Please remove items from windows, cover workstations with plastics and remove items from the floor as a precaution for flooding. Information on steps to prepare for inclement weather can be found on UVI’s Emergency Preparedness webpage via this direct link: Emergency Preparedness.
Employees are also urged to secure their homes and families this weekend. Visit http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ for a hurricane preparedness guide or use this link to for the Tropical Cyclone preparedness guide, which features the Family Emergency Plan on page 12.
All UVI students and employees are encouraged to sign-up for UVI’s Rave emergency notification system or Bucs Alert, which is used to share critical information via text messages and e-mail. Participants simply add their cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses to the “Personal Information” page in UVI’s BanWeb accounts. Additional instructions on signing up are available from this direct link.
The UVI community is asked to be vigilant and monitor all forms of communication. UVI status updates will be available on the homepage of the UVI website, www.uvi.edu, and News sections of the site. Status updates will also be available on social media: www.facebook.com/uvi.edu and twitter.com/uvi_edu; and campus hotlines: (340) 692-4168 on St. Croix and (340) 693-1016 on St. Thomas.