In a briefing last Tuesday that included representatives of disaster relief agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter, it was discussed that Torres may have to ask President Donald J. Trump for another disaster declaration to fund the full recovery of Rota.<\/p>\n
According to Patrick Guerrero, project specialist under the CNMI public assistance office of the Office of the Governor, a FEMA program, damage assessment will need to reach $1 million or more in order to avail of FEMA monetary assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur office is here\u2026to do a preliminary damage assessment so that we can assess what kind of damage was done to public facilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that there is a minimum threshold of $1 million before FEMA can provide assistance in terms of funding.<\/p>\n
Guerrero said the emergency declaration that was approved by the White House last Tuesday would only cover certain aspects in terms of recovery so the CNMI administration is looking at requesting another declaration in order to actually rebuild what was destroyed by Typhoon Mangkhut, including facilities like schools.<\/p>\n \u201cThe governor asked for an emergency declaration and the White House did provide that and that was specifically for emergency measures. It covers only certain aspects of the public assistance that is provided by FEMA. \u2026What we\u2019re trying to do is get another declaration for us to recover, rebuild facilities, schools, the public hospital, airports, anything that serves the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Torres said that he is thankful for Trump\u2019s continuous support for the Marianas in terms of recovery.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to thank our President for acting swiftly on our request and we\u2019re working now with FEMA to make sure the additional assistance for the folks of Rota is received expeditiously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), who also visited the island of Rota to assess the damage left by Mangkhut, his office will do the best that they can to help push for the additional assistance that is needed for Rota.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the paperwork gets to headquarters from Region 9, we will help get it approved\u2026so we are prepared for that with our White House contacts\u2026 and we also have an on going communication with FEMA\u2026but all this is spearheaded by the governor and we are just assisting\u2026he is the point of contact for this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Additional-pix.jpg\")
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