{"id":309082,"date":"2019-10-01T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=309082"},"modified":"2019-10-01T06:00:33","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T20:00:33","slug":"fema-breaks-ground-on-1st-house-it-will-rebuild-in-nmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/fema-breaks-ground-on-1st-house-it-will-rebuild-in-nmi\/","title":{"rendered":"FEMA breaks ground on 1st house it will rebuild in NMI"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-309082 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/fema-breaks-ground-on-1st-house-it-will-rebuild-in-nmi\/fema-groundbreaking-2\/'>FEMA groundbreaking 2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309084'>\n\t\t\t\tThe team behind the first brand-new, fully concrete home built under the CNMI-Federal Emergency Management Agency Permanent Home Construction (PHC-New). (Iva Maurin)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/fema-breaks-ground-on-1st-house-it-will-rebuild-in-nmi\/fema-groundbreaking-1\/'>FEMA Groundbreaking 1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309083'>\n\t\t\t\tGov. Ralph DLG Torres, center, Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, and Federal Emergency Management agency deputy regional administrator William \u201cBill\u201d Roche breaks the ground for the first brand-new, fully concrete home that will be built under the CNMI-FEMA Permanent Home Construction, as first lady Diann Torres and recipient Soledad Ito look on. (Iva Maurin)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Almost a year after the devastation of Super Typhoon Yutu in October 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency broke ground in Koblerville yesterday for the first house it will rebuild under the CNMI-FEMA Permanent Home Construction, or PHC-New.<\/p>\n<p>The new building will be fully concrete and will be rebuilt for free. <\/p>\n<p>The original house, owned by Soledad Ito, was one of the 462 homes that Yutu destroyed on Saipan. Yutu completely destroyed over 500 homes in the CNMI, leaving over a thousand people homeless. Ito currently lives adjacent to the destroyed house, in a wooden house constructed for her by her siblings.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cAfter the typhoon, it was very hard because I just lost my husband, and when Yutu came, I lost my house. \u2026I had nothing. &#8230;I was living in shock. &#8230;I did not know what to do,\u201d Ito recalls. <\/p>\n<p>FEMA deputy regional administrator William \u201cBill\u201d Roche expressed appreciation for Ito\u2019s patience, as well as the many other survivors who are in line for the FEMA project.<\/p>\n<p>Yutu survivors eligible for the PHC program are provided assistance in the form of brand-new constructed homes that will be built according to the standards of the CNMI\u2019s latest adopted International Building Codes. <\/p>\n<p>The new homes will be built complete with typhoon-proof shutters, backup water tanks, and kitchens with the ability to be enclosed for security purposes. The new construction is provided, in lieu of financial assistance from FEMA, to each eligible resident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a great day for the CNMI, and a great day for FEMA,\u201d FEMA\u2019s Sheryl Ann Clark said. \u201cYutu hit us almost a year ago, and there have been lots of people working behind the scenes to make sure that today can happen.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese folks have worked tirelessly with the survivors, whether it\u2019s for the repair of homes that we\u2019ve already started, or whether it was for the new construction. So I just want to thank everybody who\u2019s participating, including, of course, our contractor on this particular event,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Ralph DLG Torres also thanked FEMA, the contractors, and all the agencies who have been working hard to help the rebuilding effort. <\/p>\n<p>Ito said that FEMA contacted her about the PHC program and she opted immediately to have a new house built, in lieu of FEMA cash assistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went to the seminar in Feb. 12, and we were told that the house will have a water catchment, shutters, everything. What they are doing is very, very helpful. It really is a brand-new day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost a year after the devastation of Super Typhoon Yutu in October 2018, the Federal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":308938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[493,257],"class_list":["post-309082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-fema","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309082","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}