\u201cWhen I went to check on our home, there was no home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vic Romolor is one of 66 individuals currently seeking shelter at Garapan Elementary School. With his wife Maggie and their eight kids, he has been there since Saturday, before Typhoon Soudelor ravaged Saipan.<\/p>\n
The Romolor\u2019s home is\u2014or was\u2014in Oleai. He says they didn\u2019t get to save much of their belongings save for two futons, pillows, some change of clothes, and some cooking equipment.<\/p>\n
With no home to go back to, his family is worried that they\u2019ll be asked to move out of the shelter soon. Romolor said they were told that today would be their last day at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our question since we don\u2019t have a home,\u201d Maggie Romolor said, responding to where they plan to go.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Taisacan and her family have also been at the Garapan school for four days now. She says they were quite luckier than their neighbors in Quartermaster, Chalan Laulau\u2014where many have tin roof and wooden houses\u2014because their home was not completely destroyed, but they still need help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to take a look this morning and our house is not something to go back to. Everything inside is totally wet, the bed, the clothes, the [pieces of] furniture and the trees are just down,\u201d Taisacan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing back to stay is not really good because we don\u2019t have anywhere else to sleep and it\u2019s not secured because the roof is off,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Both families said they are waiting for the American Red Cross to assist them and assess the damage to their homes.<\/p>\n
Romolor said he doesn\u2019t have a camera to document the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I even have a phone just to take a picture,\u201d Romolor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the governor sees the damage and plans something faster than this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just hoping that Red Cross and FEMA are going to be there to help,\u201d Taisacan said.<\/p>\n
The Romolos and Taisacans are just two families in Saipan shelters that are almost maxed out. From 153 individuals prior to the typhoon\u2019s arrival Sunday night, shelterees are now number almost 500.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 464 that have taken refuge at this point in time,\u201d public information specialist LJ Castro said.<\/p>\n
Castro said most people seeking shelter are those whose houses suffered much damage or those who don\u2019t have homes anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of them are people that definitely need help,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n
According to one of the shelter managers in Garapan, those who still come in seeking shelter are being transported to other centers. The manager said about 28 have already been transported to Tanapag Headstart, Tanapag Middle School and the Aging Office in Chinatown. While shelters have generator sets, Garapan ES has no power and has limited water supply.<\/p>\n
Other shelters are Tanapag Middle School, Garapan Elementary School, Koblerville Elementary School, Kagman High School and San Vicente Elementary School, which is the only one still accepting shelterees as of now.<\/p>\n
Castro said they are already thinking of contingency plans if the shelters get maxed out.<\/p>\n
Red Cross-NMI Chapter executive director John Hirsh said long term shelters have already been established and identified. These are the Kagman Community Center and the man\u2019amko center in Chinatown.<\/p>\n
Hirsh said Red Cross is providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner to evacuees at the shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhen I went to check on our home, there was no home.\u201d Vic Romolor is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[2459,1344,67,1785],"class_list":["post-206942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-american-red-cross","tag-garapan-elementary-school","tag-people","tag-tanapag-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}