The beaches are white, lush forests cover the mountains, the turquoise sea is clear to its bed and the sun shines constantly. Tourists flock there by plane and cruise ship. Yet the Virgin Islands-St Croix, St Thomas and St John, all official Insular Territories of the union-are also perhaps America's most vulnerable point. Their infrastructure is weak; the islands are isolated geographically, 1,000 miles away from mainland America and some miles away from each other, and they are unprotected. Almost all fuel, food and medicine comes in by sea. On each island, a single generating plant provides electricity; damage to it would cut off all public power and water, and there is no grid to import electricity from a neighbouring city or state.
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