Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> Reminds me of Copenhagen: many building had this sort of half-
> submerged floor. Our stay coincided with the strongest rainfall
> since 30 years, and most of them were completely flooded.

Interesting.  In the downtown shopping district of St. Thomas, the sidewalk, and
hence the store entrances, sometimes drop below street level; or more
accurately, the street rises above the sidewalk level.  The city was built by
the Danish in the late 1600s.  The downtown area is a narrow, two block wide
strip sandwiched between the harbor and the mountains.

The story I heard is that the king of Denmark wanted nice American-style grids
for its colonial cities.  This worked out nicely on St. Croix; however, St.
Thomas is not Denmark, so we've now got streets headed straight up the
mountains, turning into long outdoor staircases when the terrain is too steep.

I doubt that the shops are especially flood-prone, as there are news reports of
other parts of the islands flooding, but I never hear it of downtown Charlotte
Amalie (the city in St. Thomas).  It may be that, although the stores are below
street level one block inland, they are level with the waterfront, so the water
does not pool.  The worst flooding during my lifetime occurred while I was
living off-island, so I don't know how the shops coped; however, when the whole
city is under water, I don't think it matters much where your floor is in
relation to the street.  I was here for a deluge of 8 inches (20 cm) in 4 hours
in 1996, but all the floodwaters had drained by the next day.  (When you're on a
rock sticking out of the sea, rainwater doesn't stick around.  Storm surges are
a different matter.)

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