{"id":288882,"date":"2018-11-20T06:06:42","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=288882"},"modified":"2018-11-20T06:06:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T20:06:42","slug":"seabee-family-devastated-by-calif-fire-while-on-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/seabee-family-devastated-by-calif-fire-while-on-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Seabee family devastated by Calif. fire while on deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1, det. Tinian pose for a group photo at the Tinian Seabee Memorial. Service members from Joint Region Marianas and Indo-Pacific Command are providing Department of Defense support to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ civil and local officials as part of the FEMA-supported Super Typhoon Yutu recovery efforts. (U.S. NAVY\/CHIEF MCS MATTHEW R. WHITE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Construction Electrician 2nd Class Jeromy Harris, deploying to the Western Pacific to help the people of Tinian recover from Super Typhoon Yutu, the second strongest typhoon to ever hit a U.S. territory, has been an adventure and a fulfilling cause.<\/p>\n

With his team of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1 Seabees deployed from Gulfport, Mississippi on a special humanitarian mission, he has thrown his efforts into helping the islanders rebuild.<\/p>\n

Just like any typical deployment, Harris has experienced challenges while away from family. This time though, the challenges are the stuff of nightmares.<\/p>\n

Harris had already settled into a routine on deployment, which included checking news outlets online to see what was happening on the mainland. That\u2019s when a lump caught in Harris\u2019 throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that the fires in California were growing on the news and when I messaged my aunt she told me that she was already evacuated and safe,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 mother, great-grandmothers and great-aunt all lived in a home in Paradise, Calif. On Nov. 8, a forest fire started and within 10 minutes of notification of the fire from local authorities, Harris\u2019 mother was forced to evacuate. In that 10 minutes she could only grab her purse and vital medication and run next door to help her grandmother into their car.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy great-aunt, also at the time, was in a rush. She woke up her husband and my family started making their way an hour north up to Sattley, Calif.,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n

During the family\u2019s harrowing trek north, all they could think about was the pets they were forced to leave at home with the hope that they survive.<\/p>\n

The family made it north to safety and checked into a hotel exhausted. The family is still waiting to hear when they can go back to see what\u2019s left of their homes. They have been notified that their whole city has burned down along with their home.<\/p>\n

With Harris being on deployment so far from home, he is determined to be resilient without letting it affect his mission to help the people of Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my job, I leave all my stress for my off-time when I can listen to music and be able to relax. We have a lot of work here to do, and I love helping the people of Tinian,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n

Knowing that he shouldn\u2019t bear the burden of the stress of this catastrophe alone, Harris is using his chain of command and peers to stay sane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve reached out to my chiefs and they have worked hard to help me, whether it be calling my folks at home, getting on the internet to message my family, and being available to talk to and ask questions about anything. They have been great,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

When Harris completes his tour overseas, he has more work to do. His plans include quickly finding his own place to live, buying his first car and, once that is done, he will take leave and head out west to take care of his loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Construction Electrician 2nd Class Jeromy Harris, deploying to the Western Pacific to help the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":288883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[162,497,67,23321],"class_list":["post-288882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-car","tag-joint-region-marianas","tag-people","tag-tinian-seabee-memorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288882","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}