PSS: No major damage to schools

No major damage to school facilities in the CNMI were reported following the onslaught of Typhoon Tingting, according to Board of Education chairman Roman C. Benavente.

“There was some damage but it was not major,” he said, adding that he received reports of water getting into classrooms but that supplies and equipment are safe.

“Books are okay unless they were left on the floor,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Of the three islands, he said Saipan seems to have been the hardest hit by Typhoon Tingting. “We’re most affected here.”

Meanwhile, Benavente said evacuees who are at emergency shelters in the schools are strictly advised against certain activities such as cooking that would pose a hazard to the classrooms.

“PSS is not allowing families to cook their food because it’s a fire hazard. We should take extra caution because it’s a classroom setting,” said the board chairman.

He said, though, that evacuees can use the schools’ cafeteria “not to cook but to eat their meals.”

He expressed relief that the evacuation happened at a time when students are on vacation. “It’s good that it’s summer so there’s no impact on the students’ classes.”

He said some schools on Tinian and Rota had also been prepared as emergency shelters but he has no information whether the schools there are currently being used for that purpose.

On Saipan, nearly 300 individuals are temporarily sheltered in different schools. These include schools in Garapan, Tanapag, Kagman High, San Vicente, Dandan, Koblerville, and Oleai.

Authorities said that, of these schools, Garapan and Koblerville schools are the most crowded.

Meanwhile, Gov. Juan N. Babauta, who visited some of the emergency shelters yesterday, reportedly brought $500 worth of chicken McNugget meals for displaced children in Koblerville. The governor reportedly arrived in the school during dinnertime.

The governor, together with some of his Cabinet officials, toured the island all day and up to early evening Monday to check on the typhoon’s impact. In the afternoon, the governor spent about an hour at the Emergency Management Office to get typhoon briefings. He also joined the EMO’s operations staff in answering hotline calls.

Babauta reported widespread flooding on Saipan Monday.

Babauta went around the island with Public Works Secretary Juan Reyes and other staff.