Bolaven more forgiving than Mawar

With Rota just getting back to its feet after the onslaught of Typhoon Mawar in May, the island is comparatively fortunate in that Typhoon Bolaven didn’t cause as much damage to the island, according to Mayor Aubry Hocog yesterday.

In a statement she issued from Rota, Hocog said that, as of yesterday evening, the island has already started recovery efforts to get back to normalcy following the typhoon, which passed just north of Rota and intensified into a super typhoon as it made its way out of the region.

“We’re doing good, just getting some rest now. We closed our shelters today after we got the ‘all-clear’ signal so now we’re just going to recuperate a little and we’re back to work today. Power went out pretty early last Tuesday evening, but the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. team was activated at around 7am and they were able to fully restore power to the island by the end of the day. We’re very fortunate with our CUC team as we now have a sense of normalcy on Rota. We’re very grateful for that,” she said.

Hocog and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios did an aerial assessment of the island yesterday afternoon and determined that the damage wasn’t as significant as it was following Mawar.

“All around, there’s no severe damage reported. The most important news is that the people of Rota are safe. There were no fatalities reported and no injuries. That’s the most important thing. We had some vegetation damage but it’s not as extreme as Typhoon Mawar. We noticed infrastructure wasn’t as badly destroyed as Mawar. In terms of government facilities, government heads will be doing their assessments, and we will be collecting all that information in the days to come,” she said.

She said no power poles fell, “but we did have some trees fall on some power lines but there wasn’t any significant damage to our power lines. Again, thanks to our hard-working Department of Public Works team, they were able to clear those.”

Overall, Hocog said, Rota learned a lot following Mawar and was better equipped to manage following Bolaven.

“After Mawar, we learned what works for us here and we have a really good team here and we were able to respond fairly quickly after the storm,” she said.

Tinian, which also experienced strong surges of wind and rain as Bolaven passed just south of the island, was also spared from any significant damage.

Tinian Mayor Edwin Aldan shared that all the island has left to do is to clean up the fallen vegetation left by Bolaven.

“The entire island got through the worst of it. We have closed our shelters. People will be going back to work, and all there’s left to do is clean up the rest of the island,” he said.

As for damage, Aldan said there is no significant damage to infrastructure, but there were some downed power lines that caused a power outage for half of the island. As of yesterday evening, power has been completely restored on the island.

“No significant damage to infrastructure, no one came in to request for an assessment of personal residences. I think the most significant damage reported was that there was a fire early in the morning as the storm passed through. There was a fire at one of the poker parlors. Department of Fire was dispatched to respond to that. I’m not too sure but I’m assuming it was an electrical fire as the establishment was closed during the storm. Power lines had fallen because some nearby trees fell on them so that’s when the power died out. Feeder 3 specifically went out, causing the power outage at around 6:30pm. Some parts of the village were without power but fortunately water was up 100% throughout the storm…there are still residences waiting to be reconnected to power. CUC is doing their best to get them back online. They will continue to re-energize the island today,” he said.

“I want to thank all the responders for coming out and actively going out to homeowners and farmers in the outskirts of the island to check if they were okay,” he added.

An optimistic Aldan said the CNMI has proven time and time again its reliance and joked that the CNMI practically has written the manual on “how to manage after a typhoon.”

“The National Weather Service did say we can expect around seven typhoons [this year]. We’re now two down, so only five more to go. We got through Typhoon Mawar, Typhoon Bolaven, and now we’re just preparing for what’s next. This isn’t something new to us here in the CNMI. We’ve technically written the manual for how to deal with typhoons. That said, we here at the Tinian municipality are always here to assist the HSEM with whatever they may need,” he said.

As for the entire CNMI itself, no significant damage was reported aside from some vegetation damage and shelters were soon closed following Palacios’ “all clear” declaration.

Government offices and schools are expected to resume today.

Advisories

Public beaches will continue to be closed until today, Thursday, Oct. 12, due to hazardous surf and weather conditions. Department of Public Safety personnel will be enforcing closures.

The Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority has resumed their Demand Responsive Shared Ride Service. For anyone needing reservations, call the One-Call/One-Click Transportation Resource Center at (670) 236-2682.