The spirit showed by those involved in the recovery efforts in the community following Typhoon Soudelor has evoked the admiration of one Federal Emergency Management Agency official.<\/p>\n
Communities in the U.S. mainland rocked by calamities could learn a thing or two from the recovery efforts on Saipan, said FEMA emergency management specialist Zina Manalo, who is originally from Guam.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody from the mainland wants to see how it works come here because this is what we call a community pulling each other together,\u201d she recounted telling FEMA management when asked how the Soudelor recovery effort was going after returning home to Washington, D.C. for the Christmas holidays.<\/p>\n
Manalo, who was also involved in recovery efforts after Katrina and Sandy in the mainland, said that bouncing back from a disaster like Soudelor is a long and arduous process and she\u2019s glad that the challenges the typhoon brought only made the island community stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a bumpy road, but with everything that I\u2019ve seen since I came to this island six months ago, you guys have really come a long way. With strong leaders and strong government to support our CNMI citizens and those who are living here, it takes a lot for us to all come together and work as one and just putting everything aside to help each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Manalo also lauded the efforts of Commonwealth Advocates for Recovery Efforts and its director, Jenny Hegland, and encouraged them to continue all their hard work in helping the community get back on its feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes we also think we\u2019re not making progress but it takes little steps to getting to that goal that Jenny and CARE has to make everything happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Acting governor Arnold I. Palacios, who like Manalo spoke during Tuesday\u2019s CARE annual meeting at the Governor\u2019s Office conference room, said that Saipan being a small and close-knit community made it easier for its residents to coalesce and be there for each other after Soudelor struck in August 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe value of being in a small community is having a sense of caring for each other. We hope to continue that work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hegland said the organization\u2019s success is a testament to the cooperation and help they\u2019ve received from everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur success is in the strength of our network. Businesses that give and volunteers have done that. Please keep caring and keep paying attention as the further we get away from the typhoon, the sooner we forget about the disaster,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
CARE\u2019s 2016 Impact Report listed the following partners: American Red Cross, FEMA, TSL Foundation, Imperial Pacific International, Ltd., Tournament of Champions, World Renew, Lady Diann Torres Foundation, Joeten Daidai Foundation, Bridge Capital, LLC, World Resort Saipan, and Mennonite Disaster Service. They donated more than $20,000 for long-term recovery in the wake of Soudelor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The spirit showed by those involved in the recovery efforts in the community following Typhoon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7056,493,6645,8125],"class_list":["post-244989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-care","tag-fema","tag-joeten-daidai-foundation","tag-world-renew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244989","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}