‘Most of FEMA work is done’

One hundred days after Typhoon Soudelor, most of the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is done. In fact, they may no longer be on island by Christmas.

Federal coordinating officer Stephen DeBlasio told Saipan Tribune that their current expectation is that they are going to be on island at least until the middle of December.

DeBlasio, who arrived on island on Aug. 3, assured that he will be seeing the mission through. Right now, about 65 FEMA people are still on island, down from the peak of 150.

DeBlasio said their public assistance group might be done with their work by the middle of November.

“That doesn’t mean the program is over,” he said.

For example, rental assistance provided to families and individuals may continue for 18 months.

“We’re not going to be here for 18 months but we will continue to manage that from the FEMA regional office in Oakland,” DeBlasio said.

FEMA received a total of 8,809 applications for individual and housing assistance. With 4,762 approved, FEMA has already dispersed over $24.7 million in aid.

“I believe the funding that we have put out there and the support that we are getting to the voluntary agencies is really going to make them whole again,” DeBlasio said.

For public assistance, $4.9 million has already been obligated to various government projects and worksheets.

The CNMI government will be reimbursed at least 90 percent of what it spent for the recovery but DeBlasio said this could still go up. “Right now, it’s under consideration to maybe reimburse them 100 percent of their eligible cost incurred due to Soudelor,” he said.

Most of the restoration on the utilities side, which was almost completely wrecked by the typhoon, is nearly done. With over 90 percent of physical restoration done by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and other power companies, CUC continues to aim at energizing all customers before Thanksgiving.

“CUC is doing a tremendous job in restoring utilities,” DeBlasio said. “I think it is amazing how much has already been done. They are beyond what was expected originally and they continue to exceed their expectations that they are putting out there.”

Focus on other needs

FEMA is also focused on responding to other needs of individuals.

“We sense that there are still some needs out there. Some of those needs cannot be fulfilled by FEMA due to the immigration status of the households,” DeBlasio said. “There are folks out there that we cannot help financially. So what we’re doing is focus on supporting voluntary agencies.”

DeBlasio said they are working with the CNMI government to be able to implement grants to provide crisis counseling and disaster case management, which will run for 24 months and could be extended further.

“We provide the money to the CNMI and the CNMI uses that funding to create the case management structure to drill down, talk to the individuals, find out exactly what it is they need,” he said.

DeBlasio said the grant will be ready in a week or two but while they are waiting, they are already working on crisis counseling and case management with the American Red Cross.

“FEMA funded the Red Cross to do that. So that’s what’s kick-starting the program,” he said.

Challenges

Among the biggest challenges FEMA faced in responding to Soudelor was logistics but DeBlasio said this was something that they already anticipated as they have also responded to major disasters in Guam and Hawaii.

“The challenges are mostly in the way of logistics and transportation. Everything is difficult to get out here,” DeBlasio said, “The geography in and of itself is the largest challenge.”

Despite the cost to get various needs shipped or transported to the island, DeBlasio said they didn’t have a problem with funding.

“In terms of the funding to work through those issues, there was no shortage. We have cut no corners and we have made no decisions based on the constraints of money,” DeBlasio said.

With regards to the unique situation of the CNMI—having many foreign workers who were ineligible for FEMA’s financial assistance—DeBlasio said they did what they could to figure out ways on how they could be eligible.

“When the law gets in the way of doing that, we need to stop there,” DeBlasio said.

When asked if it’s something that FEMA will discuss with Congress, DeBlasio said it is not their responsibility to lobby for it.

“It’s not for us to lobby politically to change the law. If the law changes then, of course, we will comply with that,” he said.