‘Yutu prepared us for Mawar’

A car drives through a narrow road of torn-down trees leading to the northern village in Yigo, Guam. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)

YIGO, Guam—Nearly five years separate Super Typhoon Yutu and Typhoon Mawar in Marianas history, yet three former Saipan residents who live in Guam now are drawing on many hard-earned lessons they learned after Super Typhoon Yutu tore into the CNMI in 2018 as a Category 5 storm.

For Liana Depich Louis, Tanisha Mori, and Sherese Saures Apat, they all agreed that Typhoon Mawar’s damage to their homes was only partial compared to the damage to their Saipan homes after Yutu. Typhoon Mawar passed through Guam last May 24 as a Category 4 hurricane.

Each of these women were on Saipan when Yutu slammed into the Marianas with 130 miles-per-hour winds in October 2018, devastating their homes. Yutu has since become known as the strongest typhoon ever recorded to hit the CNMI.

Shortly after Yutu hit, Apat relocated to Guam where she had been staying for the past five years. When describing her six hours during Typhoon Mawar last May 24, Apat shared that it was “crazy, very crazy. …All we were hearing were the rushing wind against our windows, tin rattling, and trees just falling, you know…”

Apat shared that because of the way her house was situated, her home in Mangilao was a bit more sheltered than the others and didn’t get too hard of a beating by the wind.

“We were praising God through the storm. …We were believing God that we’ll get through the storm, and make it out safely and we did,” Apat said. “Thank God that our roof didn’t fly off, and our house didn’t get flooded, so yeah, all the glory to God for keeping us safe.”

With the northern part of Guam taking the most damage from the storm, several residents in the area are still awaiting electricity, even as first responders and volunteers continue working tirelessly on repairs. Among the residents who remain without power are Louis and Mori, who both reside in the Yigo area.

Mori explained that her house was only partially damaged after Mawar hit Guam, but she was glad that she wasn’t alone and had gone to a safe place to wait out the storm. But still, in comparison to Yutu, Mori said the damage was not too bad, and remarked how even with the extensive amount of damage on the island, Guam’s recovery process is much faster than Saipan’s was.

“I was not ready for Typhoon Yutu, and we weren’t prepared for it. …For Mawar we were more prepared,” Mori said.

Louis, whose home is in the same area as Mori’s, described her six hours of the storm as a dark time. “During those six hours, everything was dark, the wind was really strong. …Honestly during those times, we were just praying, singing songs of faith, trying to stay positive throughout the whole thing. …We didn’t know how bad the damage would be on the outside, but we knew that in our home we would be okay.”

Louis said she hadn’t expected it to be too strong and was just trying to stay positive. At one point, Louis and her husband had to push things against their door to prevent it from blowing open and, after a while, retreated with her dogs into their bathroom to wait out the storm.

“It was hot, but we’ve been through worse,” she said. “I’d say Typhoon Yutu was worse, in a sense that I actually lost my home. Saipan wasn’t ready for the storm. We were out of power for about five months, so comparing that situation to the one we’re currently in right now here in Guam, with a lot of things are going back up…”

Louis feels her experience during Yutu prepared her, especially when taking precautions and planning for a storm. “I think from that experience we learned how to be resilient, so coming here and learning that Mawar was coming, it may’ve seem to other people that I was overreacting in preparing, but I wasn’t. I was more prepared, so when everything did shut down, we had what we needed to get through. …So we learned from experience. …I guess Guam was surprised, a lot of people weren’t ready. I’d overhear people in the stores saying ‘Ah, that’s just gonna pass by, it’s nothing,’ but, you know, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Louis said that their home experienced partial damage from the storm, and that they still have no power, so they don’t know the exact extent of the damage of appliances in their home, but her family is just grateful for their lives.

She’s also grateful for her family on Saipan checking up on her, and their support has encouraged her to keep moving forward. Louis is also so grateful to all the volunteers from Saipan who are in Guam to help repair the damage from the storm.