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NPS: We are still working on rehabilitating AMP
Three years since the onslaught of Typhoon Soudelor, the American Memorial Park is still working on fully rehabilitating the park.
The park may already look pristine and fully recovered but, according to National Parks Service superintendent Barbara Alberti, its full recovery could take years due to many leaning ironwood trees—considered hazardous—that have yet to be cleared and the reconstruction of picnic tables.
“We have a number of projects in the cue for the next couple of years to fully clear and reclaim the area but, again, it will take a little while,” she said.
The wrath of Typhoon Soudelor devastated the park’s picnic area. The park was deemed unsafe due to the massive amount of trees that were knocked over and were sprawled across the sidewalks, leaving the picnic area in ruins.
Alberti said that, about two months ago, the National Parks Service, with help from the Saipan Mayor’s Office, cleared the sidewalks of the hazardous trees.
“We are working on it…about one or two months ago, we cleared the area along the pathway between the bridge and the bell tower going out toward Micro Beach,” she said.
According to Alberti, the pathway is officially open to the public and there are fewer trees to take care of in terms of clearing up AMP’s picnic area. Unfortunately, there is still work to be done.
“The area beyond the pathway is still pretty barren and we’re not done,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is remove the trees that are safety hazards…the ones that are leaning or have snapped because we’re really concerned.”
Alberti said that once all the hazardous trees are cleared and the picnic area is safe for the community to use again, the National Parks Service will work on building new picnic tables in areas where storms will no longer affect them.
“One of the things we want to take into consideration is where we develop infrastructure…. we want to make sure we start thinking about putting infrastructure where it’s less likely to get damaged by storm surges.”
