SAIPAN – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District Commander Lt. Col. Adrian Biggerstaff said the Corps has installed 123 generators across the CNMI and is on track to install roughly 800 temporary roofs across Saipan, Tinian and Rota, in an interview on Good Morning Marianas Thursday.
Biggerstaff said the Honolulu District oversees Army Corps work across the CNMI, Guam and American Samoa, covering 12 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. The Corps deployed a temporary power team to Guam ahead of Sinlaku’s approach. Once the storm cleared, the team redeployed to Saipan.
“We’ve installed 123 generators across the CNMI,” Biggerstaff said. “Total energy is 3.6 gigawatt hours. To put that in normal day-to-day terms, someone could have taken their cell phone and charged it 3.6 million times with the power we provided here. Equivalent to a small power plant one would get power from in a small town.”
The Corps has installed 67 temporary roofs to date across the three islands, with around 800 total expected when the program is complete, Biggerstaff said. The deadline to submit a right-of-entry form at a mayor’s office is June 1.
“If you’re interested in getting a temporary roof on your home, go see your mayor’s office,” Biggerstaff said. “We will have local governmental liaisons there working with a volunteer crew at your mayor’s office, and they can get you the right information to fill out so your house can be assessed to see whether it meets the evaluation criteria to then get a roof.”
Navy and Army crews have been performing the roof work to date. Contractors will arrive within the next two days to focus on Saipan, with the goal of finishing Rota and Tinian before contractors deploy there, Biggerstaff said.
Biggerstaff said critical infrastructure teams have assessed nearly 70 facilities, helping identify safe entry points, restore water access and identify infrastructure repairs. The Corps is also working on a temporary school facility with a target of getting Northern Marianas College back in classrooms by September 1.
On debris removal, Biggerstaff said contractors have so far collected the equivalent of one football field stacked four feet high. When the operation is complete, the total volume will equal Beach Road stretched seven miles long and a story high. Vegetative debris is being chipped down for mulch where possible, while other material is being recycled or shipped off-island.
Biggerstaff said the Corps also carried out a non-standard mission in the days after the storm, mobilizing contractors to weigh down loose sheet metal across the island as a precaution against high winds.
“We thought just after the first pass of the storm it could be the high winds coming in,” Biggerstaff said. “So we really mobilized our contractor and tamped down or weighed down all the sheet metal across the island just to help secure it against risk against human health or material risk of having that very dangerous sheet metal being blown around again.”
Biggerstaff said the temporary roof system used in the Marianas is more durable than the blue-roof tarp system used on the U.S. mainland, having been adapted with FEMA over previous Pacific storms to use carbon-reinforced material and sheet metal more suited to local conditions.
Asked about his teams in the field, Biggerstaff said serving in the Pacific has become one of the Corps’ best retention tools.
“It is an honor for them to be able to come and serve and help this great community recover as fast as possible,” Biggerstaff said. He said USACE personnel often sign up for additional missions after deployments to the Pacific.
Biggerstaff is the 74th commander of the USACE Honolulu District and is finishing two years in the role. He oversees approximately 11 uniformed personnel and 340 civilian engineers, architects, contractors and other specialists. Sinlaku recovery is one of his command’s largest active missions.
Right-of-entry forms for temporary roof assistance can be submitted at mayor’s offices on Saipan, Tinian and Rota through June 1.
