USVI gets $5.65M for storm repairs nearly a decade after 2017 hurricanes

The Federal Highway Administration has greenlit roughly $5.65 million to help the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild roads and infrastructure damaged by two major storms spanning seven years.

The money, authorised on October 22 for the 2027 fiscal year, breaks down into two separate pots: $3.12 million tied to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which struck in 2017, and $2.53 million for Tropical Storm Ernesto, which hit in August 2024. Each disaster has its own emergency relief designation, and the funds cannot be shifted from one event to the other.

Gina Ahlstrom, acting director of the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Stewardship, Oversight, and Management, signed off on the allocation. The authorisation allows federal highway divisions to commit the money, though it does not confirm that projects have actually received the funds or that the territorial government has been paid.

The support flows through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program, which covers repairs to roads, bridges, culverts and other eligible federal-aid highway infrastructure harmed by natural disasters.

The Department of Public Works is actively working on Tropical Storm Ernesto damage. In October, the department told lawmakers that the Federal Highway Administration had approved bid packages for a box culvert replacement in Estate Bonne Resolution and a retaining wall project in Estate Mandahl, both located on St. Thomas. The October 22 records do not clarify whether either of these initiatives will draw from the newly released $2.53 million for Ernesto.

The fresh allocation for the 2017 hurricanes arrives more than nine years after Irma and Maria ravaged the territory's transportation network. According to Public Works officials in May 2023, the department had received approximately $80 million through the federal highway emergency relief program by that point, with more than $50 million already spent. The latest federal records released do not specify which roads will benefit from the new Irma and Maria funding, whether the money will cover new work or reimburse completed projects, or when construction will wrap up.