U.S. sends aid to islands devastated by typhoon
The federal government sent supplies to a U.S. territory in the Pacific that was ravaged by a super typhoon as residents of the Northern Mariana Islands dug through crumbled houses, smashed cars and fallen utility poles two days after the deadly storm.
Military planes brought in food, water, tarps and other supplies, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Gervino said. The agency is focused on helping restore power, opening sea and air ports, and ensuring cell towers can operate on emergency power until electricity returns, he said.
Super Typhoon Yutu packed maximum sustained winds of 180 mph as it passed over the islands of Tinian and Saipan early Thursday, the National Weather Service said. By Saturday, power was still out across Saipan, the largest island with 50,000 residents, and Tinian, with 3,000, local officials said.
The strongest storm to hit any part of the United States this year overturned cars, crushed small planes, ripped off roofs and killed a woman who took shelter in an abandoned building that collapsed. Others were injured, including three people who needed surgery.
Jan Reyes and her family lost everything. “Everything my family and I have bought and added to our home over 13 years laid on the flooded floor as every window in our house shattered,” the Saipan resident wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
The ceiling of a bedroom collapsed, destroying all the furniture. A cousin was trapped under debris for seven hours, Reyes said.
Her family rode out the storm in a hotel room, overturning a bed to create a barricade against the wind, rain and debris. When the worst passed, she said, it took half an hour to navigate fallen poles and trees for what would normally be a five-minute drive to their home.
“However, as islanders, we value family more than anything else in this world and we are more joyful and relieved that we are still complete and safe,” she said, adding that those in the U.S. territory are “resilient people.”
People in the islands are used to riding out monster storms, but many said Yutu was the worst they have experienced.
“One of the things that’s unique and great about the Northern Mariana Islands is because they do often have severe weather, the residents here are very resilient,” said Gervino, the FEMA spokesman. “They listen to warnings from local officials, they take shelter when directed to do so, they stock up on supplies in advance of the storm.”
He said he’s convinced that’s why there weren’t large amounts of injuries.
The territory’s only hospital, in Saipan, said it received 133 people in the emergency room Thursday, and three patients had severe injuries that needed surgery.