By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
WHEN Super Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall, Crisita Calage said she felt the same fear she remembered from Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018 — only this time, the storm lasted longer and the water rose faster.
“Oh my God, I feel nervous and I don’t know what to do,” the 59-year-old said. “It’s very strong, and Sinlaku stayed for so many days. Up to now, I don’t know what to feel. It’s so bad.”
Calage, her husband and a cousin were inside their home, which sits in the middle of a farm behind Herman’s Modern Bakery on Airport Road, when floodwaters began pouring in. Their property is in a low-lying area, she said.
“When we saw the water coming and flooding, we ran to the back to a higher area because the water was getting higher and higher,” she said.
After the storm’s onslaught, the family could not return home. The house remained flooded for a week, and the roof of their four-bedroom home had been blown away. They sought shelter with an aunt.
Calage is no stranger to destruction. During Yutu, she said her entire house was destroyed and her family sheltered in a restroom for the duration of the storm. She later applied for a rebuild through the Northern Marianas Housing Corporation and was approved, but the reconstruction never happened. Instead, she used wood and tin materials provided after Yutu to patch together a home — one Sinlaku has now torn apart again.
She said she repeatedly followed up with NMHC because both her mother and husband have disabilities.
To cope with the stress of losing her home again, Calage has been volunteering with the American Red Cross at the Marianas High School shelter.
“I don’t want to stay there. It’s so bad,” she said of her destroyed home. “Helping at the shelter takes my mind away.”
Donnell Abalia Isip, another survivor interviewed on April 24, has been staying at the Koblerville Elementary School shelter since April 14.
His home, he said, was “totally damaged,” with all his belongings destroyed.
Isip said he and his family initially stayed inside their house during Sinlaku because they believed the storm would pass quickly.
“We thought it would last two hours,” he said. “It’s very scary… holy cow, it took two days.” When they returned after seeking safety, he said, “our house was gone.” The loss was emotional.
Isip said he plans to apply for federal disaster assistance. President Donald Trump on Friday issued a major disaster declaration for the CNMI, making individual assistance and other programs available to survivors of Super Typhoon Sinlaku.
Calage and Isip are among the many residents displaced by the storm. According to the CNMI Joint Information Center, 565 people remained in shelters across Saipan and Tinian as of April 25.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
