SAIPAN — The CNMI’s Individual Assistance program is urging Super Typhoon Sinlaku survivors to file FEMA and U.S. Small Business Administration applications before a June 22 deadline, as the territory has pushed more than $21 million in individual and household assistance to survivors so far.
CNMI Individual Assistance Coordinator Clement Bermudes, Jr said the June 22 deadline marks 60 days after the president’s disaster declaration and was set federally, not by the Commonwealth. He said the program has helped more than 11,000 applicants through Survivor Recovery Centers on Saipan, Tinian and Rota, channeling over $21 million through FEMA and another $8 million through SBA loans.
Bermudes said the team is still receiving new FEMA applications daily and encouraged residents not to disqualify themselves. “When in doubt, fill it out,” he said. “Don’t self-disqualify yourself. Let FEMA do that.”
Individual Assistance Outreach Coordinator Kiyoshi Cody, who manages the Survivor Recovery Center, said the centers connect residents not only with FEMA and SBA assistance but with other needs such as wheelchairs or ice packs to keep medication cold for residents still without power.
Bermudes said the program operates with staff detailed from agencies across the government, with no standing disaster Individual Assistance program in place before the storm. He said the team printed and read FEMA’s 400-page program and policy guide front to back and stood up a Survivor Recovery Center in less than three weeks.
The coordinators said two earlier deadlines passed June 1 for the Operation S.T.R.O.N.G. roofing mission and the tent mission, with more than 1,100 tents installed across the CNMI. Cody said the Survivor Recovery Centers will not remain open indefinitely, and the program will assess after June 22 whether to keep the centers open, open a smaller location or shift to case-by-case assistance.
Residents needing transportation to a center can call COTA, the territory’s transit agency. The Survivor Recovery Centers are open seven days a week on all three islands.
