Hurricane Marilyn Intensifies, Plows Into Virgin Islands

In a tropical storm season that just won’t quit, the U.S. Virgin Islands took a pounding Friday from Hurricane Marilyn, a marauder that grew in strength after ripping through the already-battered Leeward Islands with winds of 100 m.p.h. or higher.

Hurricane warnings were also flying over Puerto Rico but for the second time in 10 days the populous U.S. commonwealth, home to 3.6 million residents, appeared likely to escape a storm’s full fury.

Forecasters predicted that Marilyn would slip by Puerto Rico to the north, following the track of Luis, a stronger storm which last week caused several deaths and widespread damage on St. Martin, Antigua and several other islands at the top of the Lesser Antilles chain.

Nonetheless, San Juan’s airport was shut Friday and many residents braced for the fourth hurricane to menace the area in as many weeks.

With up to 10 inches of rain possible, flash floods were a threat, especially in Puerto Rico’s mountainous interior.

A hurricane watch was posted for the Dominican Republic.

After brushing by Barbados and then battering what was left of Dominica’s banana crop, Marilyn passed directly over St. Croix late Friday afternoon. Trees were uprooted, the roofs of homes went flying and waves as high as 12 feet washed over beaches that actually had been enlarged just last week by swells kicked up by Hurricane Luis. One gust of 127 m.p.h. was reported.

“The wind is shaking cars right now,” a police spokesman in Christiansted said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “But people have evacuated to shelters in churches and school. A curfew is in effect, everybody is off the streets and we are prepared.”

Airports in the U.S. Virgin Islands were closed, as were government offices and schools. Gov. Roy L. Schneider also called up the National Guard to police a curfew.

Although Hurricane Luis, stronger than Marilyn, missed the Virgin Islands, most Crucians, as residents of St. Croix are called, remember Hurricane Hugo, which ravaged the island in 1989. Looting was so widespread that 1,100 Army troops were flown in to restore order.

Marilyn is the 13th tropical storm, and the seventh hurricane, in a season that is the most active since 1933.

While accustomed to preparing for storms, island residents expressed varied responses to the latest threat.

In Puerto Rico, for example, realtor Ted Baker said that he had poured out the bottled water he bought in readiness for Luis.

“I don’t think we’ll be hit,” he said. “I haven’t even brought in the lawn furniture.”

As the wind picked up on St. Thomas, meanwhile, Jeryl Frazer Hodge, an operator with Vitelco, the telephone company, pondered the possible karmic rewards for helping those stricken by Luis last week.

“When you give, you get in return,” she said. “We are blessed.”

On St. Kitts, Marilyn’s advance turned tourism minister Dwyer Astaphan philosophic.

“We live in a hurricane area and this is the peak time for storms,” he said. “God has given us beautiful islands, and sometimes he makes things a little uncomfortable for us. We prepare ourselves. These things happen.”

Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.