Saipan had no runway lights starting at 3:50 p.m., and flights bound for Rota and Guam were not allowed to leave.
Saipan-bound passengers from Rota remained stranded there as of press time early last evening.
Department of Public Works and Emergency Management Office personnel were deployed to clear the drainages in key areas of the island.
Hardest hit by the flooding, according to DPW’s roads and grounds division, was the intersection at Msgr. Guerrero and As Lito Roads in lower Dandan near the Shell gas station.
DPW personnel cleared the debris washed away by the water that poured from higher grounds. They also opened five of the drainage ditches in the area.
DPW said the flood was knee-deep in certain areas.
Martin Teregeyo, 47, rushed out of his house in Garapan to check the extent of the flood outside.
He said flooding happens every year in his neighborhood.
It’s a good thing that he already surrounded his house with a concrete fence to prevent the water from getting in, he said.
His son Nelson said last year the water got into their house.
The Emergency Management Office sent its own personnel to assist in clearing the debris on key Saipan roads.
DPW said at the height of the downpour, the flood along Middle Road particularly near the Pacific Telecom Inc. building was one-and-a-half feet deep.
The knee-deep water stretched from Taro Sue in Gualo Rai all the way to the Commonwealth Health Center.
The drainage canal across from 99 Cents overflowed and submerged the main road.
Motorists in the Sadog Tasi/Saipan Ice area had to deal with the flood and debris on the road.
On Beach Road, the flood slowed traffic from the Microl intersection all the way to Duty Free Shop Galleria.
“It’s typhoon season and we can’t control the flow of water,” a DPW personnel said.
An EMO advisory stated that rainfall was 2.4 inches thick between 2 to 3:30 p.m., as “substantial and additional rainfall approached in the next hours,” temporarily overwhelming the island’s drainage systems.
