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![\"Typhoon](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/NMC-pix.jpg\")
<\/a>Hart told Saipan Tribune that they have no estimate yet on the cost of damage to their campus. This will be determined once a FEMA on-site project specialist arrives.<\/p>\n
She calls damage to the college \u201csignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of some 18 buildings that sustained damage from the storm, about four are \u201cinoperable,\u201d according to Hart. This includes the college gym, which sustained damage to its roof and floor.<\/p>\n
The lab rooms for the college\u2019s research and extension services also lost its roof and suffered structural damage.<\/p>\n
Hart says most of the damage, though, occurred in buildings for support services. Most classrooms were spared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of all our classrooms have staved damage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hart said college deans and staff have been working tirelessly night and day and on weekends to get the college back on its feet.<\/p>\n
She thanked John Guerrero, director of NMC facilities, and other staff for their effort.<\/p>\n
She said they\u2019ve cut the time to begin class again almost \u201cin half\u201d because of the amount of effort they have put in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be definitely be operable and ready by Sep. 28,\u201d Hart told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Damage<\/strong><\/p>\n In a meeting with FEMA, the college provided a draft damage assessment report for the campus.<\/p>\n Hart said they will have to do more structural analysis, and will have to solve the mold that is starting to appear on a lot of their walls as many rooms have lost air-conditioning and are exposed to the rain and weather.<\/p>\n Hart said they would be doing individual or different projects for each damaged building\u2014not the entire campus.<\/p>\n The college, for example, will have to determine the exact age of the damaged buildings. The college was reportedly built around 1955 as a semi-concrete hospital.<\/p>\n Hart said Building E\u2014or the college\u2019s bookstore\u2014sustained \u201csignificant roof damage.\u201d Its electrical also needs to be checked.<\/p>\n Building F and G\u2014the college\u2019s research and extension labs\u2014have \u201cextremely significant\u201d roof and structural damage. They are inoperable. The college believes they are damaged beyond use.<\/p>\n Hart said they learned from FEMA that if a building is more than 50 percent significantly damaged, then they may have to look at replacement, adding that these are some issues the college will explore with FEMA\u2019s project specialist.<\/p>\n Building D\u2014which held some classrooms\u2014had roof damage.<\/p>\n Building H, which houses the college\u2019s snack bar, is inoperable and severely damaged beyond use.<\/p>\n Building I\u2014which held some student services offices\u2014sustained roof and water damage.<\/p>\n Building J\u2014the college\u2019s student center\u2014sustained roof damage.<\/p>\n The business department offices in Building J also had water damage.<\/p>\n NMC\u2019s Building K took some roof damage. The college\u2019s Building L\u2014which held college offices and a warehouse\u2014took roof damage. Building M also sustained minor roof damage.<\/p>\n Building N had primarily water leaks.<\/p>\n Building O\u2014which holds the college library and archives\u2014lost its central air-conditioning system. Building P\u2014which holds Hart\u2019s office and the administration offices\u2014also lost its central air-conditioning.<\/p>\n Building R took some roof and structural damage. It sustained damage beyond use and will be inoperable.<\/p>\n Building T\u2014which held Adult Education classes\u2014took some roof damage.<\/p>\n Building V and W\u2014classrooms and labs for V\u2014had water damage.<\/p>\n Building W\u2014the computer lab\u2014had water damage.<\/p>\n The NMC gym suffered major roof and floor damage, making it inoperable.<\/p>\n Three college extension services vehicles were also significantly damaged by the storm.<\/p>\n Moving forward<\/strong><\/p>\n Hart said less-than-half a dozen buildings weren\u2019t significantly impacted by Typhoon Soudelor\u2014but even in those buildings, they are finding \u201csignificant rodent and pest infestation.\u201d<\/p>\n She noted that they are working hard to make the college operable.<\/p>\n When asked about the typhoon\u2019s possible impact on enrollment numbers, Hart said it was still the \u201cperfect time\u201d for people to come together and consider college.<\/p>\n The island has seen small businesses close doors as an islandwide power outage persists since the typhoon hit weeks ago.<\/p>\n Noting that 90 percent of those who do enroll at NMC are qualified for financial aid, Hart said they are planning concerted efforts to reach out to villages.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026So people might be able to ultimately get that education going down the road that will help them with their career, and continue on with their lives,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Northern Marianas College sustained significant damage when Typhoon Soudelor hit over three weeks ago,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":209148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[493,69,38,6333],"class_list":["post-209147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-fema","tag-nmc","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209147","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}