CUC to open Kagman water station today

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will announce the opening of a Kagman water station today after opening three stations at their Agag, Capital Hill, and Kannat Tabla reservoirs yesterday.

“People are happy…,” said acting CUC executive director John Riegel said.

Riegel commended the Department of Public Safety for helping with traffic control.

“Their office has been a tremendous help,” he said.

CUC started serving residents at Agag at 10am. They closed at 5pm.

The Capital Hill station, which opened at 3pm, and Kanat Tabla station, which opened around 4pm, were open until 7pm.

As a precautionary measure, Riegel advises customers to first either treat the water with bleach or boil it before using it.

Power restoration

Once Federal Emergency Management Agency aid hits the ground, Riegel said they would start power and water restoration as soon as possible.

Riegel said that power restoration would probably take three weeks to a month.

FEMA Region 9 director of external affairs John Hamill said yesterday the local government’s priorities are power and water restoration.

FEMA federal coordinating officer Stephen DeBlasio said this “more permanent work” for the restoration of power infrastructure will be reimbursed by the federal government.

Hamill said generally it was a cost-share effort—70 percent federal and 30 percent local funds.

“That can change depending on the capacity of the local government,” he said.

Larissa Paschyn, FEMA’s Incident Management Assistance Team external affairs leader, said, “Where they do and what they do first” will be based on the direction of the CNMI government.

“We will be the support for the local government. [For] those rapid needs, we go based on what CNMI asks us to go to first,” she said.

Riegel said that, with help from the Guam Power Authority, they have assessed and completed an inventory of damage to CUC from the destructive Typhoon Soudelor and have sent their requests to FEMA.

“It’s a very extensive list,” Rigel said.

“We are attacking it parallel. We are working on a dual track” to restore both power and water services, Riegel said.

“We requested 10 generators to put in the most critical locations [for water supply]. The next step is to build supply in tanks and release water to the community in limited hours a day,” he said.

Riegel said they “haven’t been told a specific date” for when generators from Guam will arrive but expects by early next week to have supplies hit the ground.

FEMA officials first reported the arrival of 10 generators from Guam for Thursday night or Friday morning, but Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan said yesterday that 11 generators would arrive on Saturday.

Hamill said the number reported “is a dynamic number.”

Riegel said whether FEMA-ordered generators arrive today or Monday, CUC would work to restore water as soon as they come in.

According to Riegel, Typhoon Soudelor downed “closer to 300” power poles across the island.

Riegel said Power Division manager Gary Camacho completed the inventory. A total of 250 downed poles were the last confirmed count.

Riegel said transformers were broken from falling and striking the ground.

Power Plant 1—CUC’s main plant—was put offline after the storm.

“The wind tore off sections of the roof. Two of the walls—north and east facing walls—allowed all the rain to come in and got into the generators,” Riegel said.

GPA assessed the generators to see if they needed replacement or could be dried out.

Riegel said they would be drying out the generators.