Power back up for most of CNMI

Feeder 1 remained down on Rota as of yesterday afternoon but power and water restoration appears largely successful in the CNMI after Typhoon Dolphin hit over the weekend.

CUC public information officer Brad Ruszala told Saipan Tribune yesterday afternoon that a “good amount of Rota” now has power.

CUC Power Division manager Gary Camacho also said the restoration process was going very well.

“We are moving forward and there has been a lot of success down there with the resident line crew and staff on Rota,” he said.

A four-man line crew was sent from Saipan to Rota on Sunday morning to assist the island after it was struck the hardest by the typhoon. Camacho also noted that the Rota crew had been performing a lot of repairs prior to the Saipan line crew’s arrival and have been successful in their efforts.

On Saipan, Camacho said there was very little damage to the island’s main feeders or high voltage system. All feeders were up and running and providing power across Saipan yesterday. CUC said crews focused on remaining individual outages.

Compared to work done during and after Typhoon Bavi, Camacho said this time power crews worked and rested together, instead of having rotating shifts.

“And this time, this has seemed to pay off a little better,” he said.

There were also brief outages in Kagman yesterday, Camacho and Ruszala said, but this was due to “vegetation issues” with tree branches interfering with power lines and was resolved.

On Saipan, the CUC Call Center received 3,992 calls from customers who experienced power fluctuations, lost power, or reported issues with lines, transformers or meters. Representatives also fielded calls about power poles that were tilted, downed or burning during the storm.

Yesterday afternoon, CUC performed an emergency power interruption to replace a power pole along Chalan Pale Arnold in Tanapag that was severely damaged during the storm. The pole posed a safety risk and required Feeder 7, which provides power from the power plant to the northern villages, to be taken offline.

Water across Saipan has also been restored, although CUC addressed isolated service interruptions in Koblerville yesterday.

On Tinian, all power and water services have been restored. CUC addressed individual issues from customers inconvenienced by the storm.

As of press time, Feeder 1 on Rota remained down.

Some customers normally served by Feeder 1 were receiving power from Feeder 3, which is also 95-percent energized, according to CUC.

“Linemen hope to bring a portion of Feeder 1 online and return full service to customers along Feeder 3 by the end of the night,” CUC said.

Work on Feeder 2 is nearly complete as Sinapalo I, II, and III are 100-percent online. Work continues to restore service to customers living in the Chenchon area.

The water system on Rota fared better than its power component, as CUC customers are online. CUC Water personnel will declare 100-percent restoration to the system following an assessment of the water transmission line from the Water Caves to the Ka’an and Ginalangan reservoirs once conditions permit.