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Weekend cleanup at Beach Road
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Posted on Sep 03 2005
Though the CNMI was largely spared the wrath of Typhoon Nabi last Wednesday, the typhoon still managed to leave behind the usual post-typhoon detritus of broken branches, fallen trees, and litter that turned major thoroughfares into eyesores.
Thanks, however, to the efficient clean up brigade of the Department of Public Works, the cleanup immediately began, a day after Nabi passed Saipan. According to Operations and Maintenance staff William Kintz yesterday, the cleanup started Thursday from Beach Road, Garapan, and will continue until all major highways are cleaned up.
Yesterday’s cleanup began at 7:30am and continued until afternoon. Kintz said the department sent at least 50 DPW staff to help out in the cleanup yesterday.
He said that, since Thursday, he alone has already dumped 50 truckloads of debris and tree litter that he had raked up from Beach Road.
Hawaiian Rock Products also helped out in the road cleanup yesterday by providing at least two huge dump trucks that worked hand in hand with DPW’s backhoes.
The major cleanup of the Beach Road, Kitz said, started from Garapan and will extend all the way to San Antonio, with the department aiming to finish the road cleanup by today.
Typhoon Nabi left the CNMI with at least 114 houses either completely destroyed or with major and minor damages, according to the American Red Cross-CNMI chapter. ARC reported that 37 homes have become unlivable because they were either completely destroyed or severely damaged. Most of the damaged houses are on Saipan.
Red Cross added that on Saipan, the typhoon wrecked or damaged some 105 dwellings. A total of 28 houses-two of them completely destroyed and 26 others sustaining major damage-have become unlivable, displacing scores of residents, said ARC.
In the agricultural sector, Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service has partnered with the Division of Agriculture on an islandwide survey of Saipan’s agricultural condition in the aftermath of the typhoon. Agricultural consultant Isidoro Cabrera said some 70 to 80 percent of Saipan’s agricultural crops were destroyed by the typhoon.
