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Sablan: No major damage to businesses
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Posted on Aug 25 2004
Business establishments on island sustained no major damage during Supertyphoon Chaba, Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan said yesterday.
“There’s a lot of flooding but most businesses are okay. Some warehouses were damaged but can be easily repaired. I don’t believe it hurt that much,” said Sablan.
In fact, he said the typhoon conditions resulted in increased consumer spending since people bought stock items.
Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands president Ron Sablan, meantime, confirmed that hotel occupancy was up during the typhoon.
He said local residents with no power and water supply at home preferred to check-in at hotels.
“Also people went to hotels for security reasons,” he added.
Tourists who got stranded on island due to the stormy condition also boosted the occupancy rate over the weekend.
“It was good for the hotels. We we’re glad that we can be of help but it’s unfortunate because of its impact on tourism,” he said.
Ron Sablan said that, while there was some benefit in terms of increased occupancy rate, “we’re concerned about how the island looks right now.”
“That certainly affects tourism but we’ve been resilient on this kind of situation. We can work things out together,” he said.
Meantime, Sablan said HANMI’s coordination with the Emergency Management Office in getting timely weather alerts “worked” this time.
He said that during Typhoon Tingting, HANMI was at a loss for lack of information from EMO.
“Shortly before Supertyphoon Chaba hit us, we had worked things out with EMO. For the first time, EMO was giving us information on [the] weather situation. It’s effective. We were able to give our guests timely updates,” said Sablan.
