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CNMI upgrades to Typhoon Condition 1
Changes direction and to pass south of Tinian; Trump declares emergency in CNMI
The islands of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota have been upgraded to Typhoon Condition 1 as of 9am.
This early, President Donald J. Trump has already declared that an emergency exists in the CNMI and ordered federal assistance to supplement Commonwealth and local response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from Typhoon Yutu beginning on Oct. 24, 2018, and continuing.
According to a separate press release from the CNMI State Warning Point, Typhoon Yutu continues to rapidly intensify as it approaches the Marianas and is expected to pass as a dangerous Category 4 typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
Yutu was seen traveling on a west northwest track at 10 mph and is expected to make its closest point of approach early Thursday morning but bringing destructive and damaging weather conditions early tonight.
Fortunately, according to the U.S. National Weather Service, Yutu has changed course overnight, dipping south and is no longer expected to directly hit Saipan and, instead, passing just south of Tinian.
President Trump’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the municipalities of Rota, Saipan, Tinian, and the Northern Islands.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.
Brock Long, Administrator, FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, named Benigno Bern Ruiz as the federal coordinating officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
