Thousands of residents panicked and fled the territory after mysterious problems slowed Internet service across the Virgin Islands in recent days.
Concerns first arose Friday morning, as residents woke up and began reaching for electronic devices to check e-mail, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
“I just want to the read some cricket scores, but they won’t come up,” one nervous resident said shortly after 7:30 a.m., as he paced up and down Main Street with his iPad. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Still wearing his pajamas, he had rushed to his neighbour’s house, hoping to get a better connection. But the situation there was much the same.
“She wouldn’t even acknowledge me because she was so desperate to get online,” explained the man. “We almost got in a fight, but in the end neither of us succeeded, and I still don’t know the cricket scores.”
He was not alone. Throughout the territory, residents were stumbling from their houses with worried looks on their faces.
Their eyes were glued to electronic devices, and they often bumped into one another as they worked furiously to find a faster connection. Few succeeded.
Exodus
As the day progressed, panic set in, eventually triggering rioting and a mass exodus from the territory.
Throughout Friday, a growing crowd gathered at the Road Town Ferry Terminal, demanding passage to St. Thomas.
“I can check some Internet sites, but not others,” said one woman, her hands violently shaking as she desperately punched keys on a laptop her husband was holding for her. “I can use Gmail, but not Yahoo. How can I survive without Yahoo?”
But this wasn’t the worst of it.
“And I — and — and —” she mumbled, before breaking down in tears.
Her husband put his arm around her and grimly finished her sentence.
“She can’t check Facebook,” he said. “The site comes up, but none of the photos, the videos, the timeline — nothing.”
Like most other residents, the two hoped to escape the territory as quickly as possible. But as the crowd at the ferry terminal spilled into the street and brawls began to break out, it seemed increasingly unlikely that they would be able to catch a ferry.
A similar scene played out at the airport, and terrified residents escaped any way they could: Some commandeered boats; others reportedly started swimming.
DDM warnings
As the crisis intensified, the governor convened the National Emergency Operations Centre, and the Department of Disaster Management urged the territory to stay calm.
But these efforts quickly fell apart as disaster officials realised that the Internet service in the NEOC was no stronger than in the rest of the territory.
After setting off the emergency alert siren, the only warning the officials managed to broadcast was a brief Tweet: “There’s, like, a dozen people in this room and no Internet! Every man for himself!!!!!”
The NEOC subsequently was evacuated, with disaster officials joining the exodus from the VI.
Evacuated
By Saturday morning, the territory was eerily quiet, with cars abandoned helter-skelter on the roads and few boats remaining in the water.
Ferries had stopped running after captains refused to return to pick up other passengers.
The few people who were still here had reverted to a wild state, and few traces of civilisation remained.
“Grrrrrrrrr,” growled a red-eyed man on Main Street when asked for a comment.
Then he bared his teeth and added, “Rowrrrr,” before throwing a mango at this reporter and running in the other direction.
Groups of children roamed the streets of the capital, looting stores, scavenging for food and howling at the moon.
The situation had not improved as of press time: Even though Internet service had been restored in most of the territory, residents refused to return lest the problem recur.
Meanwhile, St. Thomas and other neighbouring islands set up refugee camps for the escapees, complete with wireless Internet.
“Thank heaven!” one escapee posted on Facebook from a camp in St. John. “We’re finally able to post status updates!”
As of press time, there was no word on when residents might be able to return to the VI, if ever. But an international team of experts was preparing to assess the situation as soon as they are able to visit safely.
Disclaimer: Dateline: Paradise is a column and occasionally contains satirical “news” articles that are entirely fictional.
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