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Mayor’s office to focus on clearing Saipan villages
The Saipan Mayor ‘s Office will be concentrating on villages to do cleanup and clearing of fallen debris after Typhoon Mangkhut hit the island last Monday.
In a chance interview with David M. Apatang on Tuesday, he said his office sits down and do assessment work with the Homeland Security and Emergency Management after every typhoon.
“We have to submit a report before we start cleaning up. Since Gov. Ralph DLG Torres announced that we are clear of the typhoon, we went out and started picking up debris along the villages and around the island,” he added.
The clearing of debris started in earnest on Tuesday afternoon. He said they primarily clear areas that are blocking access to people, “especially when people have to leave their house, let’s say, for emergency or medical needs.”
“We are going to start concentrating on the villages, we are going to scatter a team and go around picking up debris and leaves. Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the governor plan to set up a staging area like what we did before after Typhoon Soudelor. It’s going to be in Kagman where we can put debris collected temporarily and later on we can dispose them at the landfill,” he added
Apatang said that preparations for Typhoon Mangkhut were organized and followed procedures.
“In situations like this…the procedures are the same and implementation is key. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is here and they have been in Guam for the last few days. They saw that this typhoon is going to be a big one.”
“We are fortunate that we didn’t get hit like Rota where Typhoon Mangkhut went on top of Rota and landed on island. I have not spoken to the mayor of Rota, but I listened to him during our meeting up in the Emergency Center because we always get together up there in situations like this to plan and prepare,’ he added.
The island of Saipan was largely spared from Typhoon Mangkhut’s destructive strength as it heads to Taiwan. “We are grateful that we didn’t get hit as what was projected. We don’t have a lot of damage but we got some reports where some house roofs were blown away. A lot of trees are down but those we can take care and manage,” Apatang said.
