Remember the Marianas

LAST WEEK the Northern Marianas were devastated by a category five typhoon. Getting those poor folks help is going to be difficult. But that shouldn’t stop us from giving the issue our full attention.

Elections are at the top of the news today. But let’s pull our eyes away from those stories long enough to help our citizens way out across the Pacific Ocean. Keep in mind, it’s a U.S. commonwealth—and the Marianas have been for decades now. They even have a delegate in the House of Representatives.

Thousands of people are now without electricity and water on these islands. Here’s more from The Washington Post:

“Typhoon Yutu’s 180-mph winds overturned cars, knocked down hundreds of power poles and left an island of thousands without a medical center and another without an airport. Buildings were reduced to haphazard piles of tin and wood; if a structure wasn’t made of concrete, one resident said, it was probably wiped out by the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit any part of the United States since 1935.”

President Donald Trump’s administration was criticized for the slow response to Puerto Rico following a category five hurricane there, and at the time officials pointed out the island’s distance from our mainland, which caused logistical problems. If people think getting aid to Puerto Rico was difficult, helping the Northern Marianas is going to be a logistical nightmare.

Making matters worse, one of the islands is without an airport following the typhoon’s destruction.

More than 50,000 people call this territory home, and the United States is responsible for the island. Because of distance and small population, this crisis probably won’t get the news attention it needs, more’s the pity.

But we’re still a compassionate nation. Let’s prove it again. Especially since the Marianas are our people.