‘I have yet to receive help from FEMA and Red Cross’

More than a month after Typhoon Soudelor ravaged Saipan and less than a month before registration for disaster assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency ends, 64-year-old Jose Igisomar has yet to receive assistance from FEMA as well as the American Red Cross-NMI Chapter.

Jose Igisomar shows the container that he uses to keep necessary items from getting wet inside his room. The room has an open roof and everything from clothes, to mattress, to other room items are wet. (Jayson Camacho)

The reasons for the Chalan Lau Lau resident not receiving aid yet is simple—he has no transportation and no landline to contact FEMA or ARC.

Igisomar lost everything. Since Soudelor blew away the roof of his semi-concrete home, everything he owns is now wet, damaged, and in different stages of disrepair.

What’s worse is he can barely walk and has diabetes and high blood pressure.

His niece, who lives just 20 feet away from the backyard of his home, also has a damaged house. Fortunately, she and her boyfriend had sought shelter before the typhoon and were recently staying at the Arts Council. However, with the Arts Council now closed and with no other place to go to, she is now staying at a sister’s house with her two kids.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, she said FEMA and the Red Cross didn’t inspect Igisomar’s house because he didn’t register.

“We got help from ARC and FEMA. They inspected our house, but they didn’t even care to check my uncle’s house because he didn’t register. Where is the assistance? His house is totally damaged,” she said.

“We see him all the time cleaning the area. He still locks his room despite the roof [being] gone. Everything is wet,” she added.

Igisomar’s house, along with more than 15 houses in the area, is near wetlands. With the area filled with water everywhere, mosquitoes have been their biggest problem.

Igisomar’s neighbor, Francisca Miller, has opened her house to neighbors and one of her relatives. She herself sustained some damage, with the roof of her veranda torn off and the ceiling damaged. They have repaired it with a used tin that they salvaged. They have also built a secondary kitchen in her backyard because they have yet to have power.

FEMA and ARC have also inspected her house, which is only 40 feet away from Igisomar’s home, while two other neighbors are some 100 feet away from his backyard.

Igisomar said that although he doesn’t own the house—his sister does—he stays there to maintain it and he can’t claim anything and can’t receive assistance because of lack of transportation to go to the Disaster Recovery Center and ARC or a landline to call both agencies.

“They were here to check my niece’s house and my neighbor’s, but not mine. They didn’t even help me,” he said.

A Community Outreach Recovery Effort member, along with a nurse who visited the area yesterday, reached out to him and will be helping him out so he could register and get the assistance he needs.