3 hotels temporarily closed

A boy views the massive destruction caused by Super Typhoon Yutu at the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio. PIC and two other major hotels on Saipan temporarily closed due to the devastation. (Ferdie de la Torre)

Three major hotels on Saipan have temporarily closed operations due to extensive damage from Super Typhoon Yutu’s fury.

Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands president Gloria Cavanagh confirmed with Saipan Tribune that Pacific Islands Club Saipan, Coral Ocean Golf Resort, and the Saipan World Resort have temporarily shut down as they are cleaning up the property and doing repairs.

Cavanagh said Aquarius Beach Tower Hotel in Chalan Kanoa also had extensive damage, but she is not sure whether the hotel managed to remain open.

She said the Saipan World Resort in Susupe was renovating and running partially prior to the storm and is just temporarily closed after Super Typhoon Yutu.

Cavanagh said Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort Club in Koblerville is almost completely damaged but Coral Ocean Point itself is looking at reopening at the beginning of the year.

With respect to the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio, Cavanagh said they sustained major damage, but are looking at a month to a month and a half to reopen.

“We got damage both in the hotel and waterpark,” said Cavanagh, who is PIC’s general manager.

Both Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort Club and PIC, along with Kensington Hotel, are owned by E-Land Group.

Cavanagh said all other hotels suffered only minor damage and are operational.

“It’s very sad. Typhoon Soudelor hit the north side; this one hit the south side,” she said.

Typhoon Soudelor devastated the CNMI in 2015.

“This is what we get for living in paradise,” the HANMI president said, adding that they’re glad that there was no loss of life or any major injuries during the storm.

“I have been through five major storms in my life and this one was the worst,” she said.

Cavanagh said that all employees are joining in trying to clean up all hotel properties in order to get them ready for repairs and reopening.

She said majority of the hotels, starting from Kanoa Resort going north, with the exception of Saipan Word Resort, are up and running.

Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort Club operations manager Calvin Park said the hotel suffered extensive damage, prompting them to transfer their guests to Kensington Hotel.

Park said they are temporarily closing the hotel for cleanup and to remove debris that pose a danger to guests and employees.

Park said they started yesterday to distribute their drinkable water to residents.

He said they were able to give 300 containers of water to 150 persons.

“We will increase the water distribution tomorrow. We are happy to help the people,” said Park, adding that they also distributed free water to the public when Soudelor devastated the CNMI.