Previous Story
PSS: Estimated $2M in damage expected to grow
Typhoon Soudelor caused an estimated $2 million in damage to the CNMI Public School System’s buildings, according to Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan.
She said this is only for damage to facilities; PSS is still evaluating property damage on instructional materials, equipment, and supplies caused by the Aug. 2 typhoon.
She expects the amount to increase once the final assessments come in.
“It’s quite a big number considering the loss that we had [on some of our] facilities. This includes Garapan elementary, San Vicente elementary, Gregorio T. Camacho elementary, Tanapag Middle School, Marianas High School, and a couple of Dandan Middle School classrooms,” Sablan said. “We still need to take a closer look and that is only for damaged facilities. We have to take into account our contents as well.”
According to Sablan, a couple of vehicles were damaged as well, including some equipment.
More than 45 of PSS’ buildings were damaged by the typhoon. Sablan said that GES was hit the most with about 12 classrooms damaged. San Vicente has more than 20 damaged classrooms, the MHS Gymnasium is still unusable, Tanapag has classrooms damage, and GTC’s bathrooms roof is gone, among others.
Sablan said they’ve already sent PSS’ public assistance application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We have done our inspection with FEMA and we have filed our report with FEMA for public assistance and hopefully we can be getting some feedback soon,” Sablan said.
“We have also submitted our debris plan to get reimbursement because we lost a lot of trees and there was so much debris that came unto campus[es] and we had to take care of those right away for safety,” she added.
