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Number of Kagman shelterees shot up
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Posted on Feb 27 2019
The number of evacuees at the Kagman Emergency Shelter Facility abruptly tripled last weekend, with fears of Typhoon Wutip hitting the Marianas. All of them have already gone home, though.
Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Robert Hunter told Saipan Tribune in an interview yesterday that they saw an additional 100 residents at the facility.
“We’ve had an increase of about 100 shelterees in the KESF,” Hunter said. “…But they are now all gone.”
Hunter noted that most of the shelterees that stayed at the KESF over the weekend feared that Typhoon Wutip, which had sustained wind speeds of 155 mph, could possibly affect the Marianas.
The U.S. National Weather Service Guam upgraded Wutip to a super typhoon early Sunday morning, but then downgraded it to just a typhoon last Monday.
As of 2:30pm yesterday, the USNWS in Guam noted that Wutip was about 345 miles west-northwest of Guam and about 390 miles west of Saipan. Wutip had maximum sustained winds of up to 140 mph and is forecasted to weaken over the next few days as it makes its way into the Philippines, with a northward trajectory of 3 mph.
“The shelterees came in to make sure that Wutip was not worse than it seems and had their tents put up immediately after the typhoon passed,” said Hunter. “It just goes to show how useful having a shelter on the ready is—it was a good exercise for us.”
According to Hunter, the KESF still has 53 shelterees since Super Typhoon Yutu.
“A lot of the ones that came [to] KESF had been at the shelter before. They were in tents, so their tents were taken down, they were placed in the shelter, and their tents were reassembled right after Wutip was out of our area,” Hunter said.
MD: Kagman shelterees rise abruptly from Wutip fears.
KW: Kagmen Emergency Shelter Facility, DCCA, Robert Hunter, KESF.
