‘Rapid communication with public is priority’

On the behalf of the Torres administration, press secretary Kevin Bautista expressed his gratitude to the community for following and monitoring closely the many tropical storm advisories that were put out by the Office of the Governor about Tropical Storm Mindulle (20W), which brought heavy rainfall to the CNMI late last week.

In an interview with him on Sunday, Bautista said that effectively and rapidly communicating with the community ahead of tropical storms, typhoons, and other natural disasters is a “paramount priority” for the Torres administration.

“In every natural disaster threat to the Marianas, the Torres administration has made it a paramount priority to effectively and rapidly communicate to the general public in order to keep residents safe, especially the most vulnerable in our community. We thank the community for being cooperative and for following our numerous updates and announcements from Governor Torres and our Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management,” said Bautista.

Bautista added that many conversations between him and the National Weather Service took place last week, where it was learned that 20W formed within the CNMI region, bringing around 3 to 5 inches of rain to Saipan, Tinian, and Rota while the storm gradually developed into a tropical storm. Bautista described last week’s storm as “a strange one” due to many different weather models from the NWS showing different projections because of how the storm was organized.

Briefly talking about Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ decision to call off work for the government’s non-critical employees last week, Bautista explained that Torres took the CNMI’s vulnerability to storms in the past, the unpredictable nature of 20W’s development, and the fact that 20W was developing in the region all into consideration.

Bautista again thanked the community for its cooperation and said that last week was another reminder of “why we are Marianas Strong.”

“It takes a home, a village, an island, and one Commonwealth to look out for one another during any natural disaster threat, and everyone from the Emergency Operations Center [on Capital Hill] to people on all three islands sharing our press releases with their loved ones. There’s a lot of work being done by a lot of good work being done by good people in government, and this storm is a reminder of the hard work being done to protect the community,” said Bautista.