SAIPAN — More than 10,000 CNMI residents have already registered for FEMA Individual Assistance after Super Typhoon Sinlaku, and the agency is approaching $20 million in awarded aid, FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Andrew Grant said in an in-studio interview Thursday on Good Morning Marianas.
But Grant said the registration window for the Individual Assistance program closes on June 22, and he and CNMI State Coordinating Officer Clement Bermudes, Special Assistant for the CNMI Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, urged anyone still on the fence to get into the system before the deadline.
“Money was not a factor in our conversations. It was about meeting survivors’ needs,” Grant said, crediting the White House’s decision to provide 100 percent direct federal assistance for the early phase of recovery. “President Trump’s decision to provide that 100 percent allowed us to focus on helping survivors instead of what the cost burden would be.”
Grant said that 100 percent federal cost share is in place for the first 90 days of the response. After that window, the law requires the territory to share in costs, which is why crews are pushing hard to move debris, install temporary tents and roofs, and complete other direct federal assistance work inside the window.
Bermudes said another important deadline is closer. The window for households to submit Rights of Entry for the federal tent and roofing program closes June 1. Those forms are being received through the island Mayors’ Offices, which Bermudes said have been “extremely helpful and pivotal” in connecting eligible households on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to the programs.
Bermudes said HSEM is now planning for next-level mitigation at the EOC, including possible redundant backup power and shelter-hardening for generator housing. The Tåpotchau communications tower, which crumpled during Sinlaku, is being replaced as part of a project that was already underway before the storm. FEMA Emergency Support Function 2 along with the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center out of Texas and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency stood up backup radio stations to keep first responders connected.
Grant said the federal response model is built less on command and more on coordination. As FCO, he is a White House appointee whose role is to make sure the expertise and authorities of partner agencies, including the Department of Energy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of War, come to bear on the recovery.
“It’s not command, in a sense, like you would know in the military,” Grant said. “It’s more about working within the organizations to bring the experts to bear on the problems.”
Grant praised Bermudes’ leadership during the response. “This guy right here was steady leadership, frankly cool as a cucumber in chaos, which was very appreciated when you arrive because sometimes you don’t get that,” Grant said. “For the people of CNMI, know that when we came in, immediately it was a difference maker that we’re working with a professional.”
Both officials emphasized that the debris removal mission on Saipan is moving methodically village by village, and that residents play a direct role in keeping it on pace. Grant pointed to the curbside sorting visible just outside the studio on Beach Road as a model of how the program is supposed to work when residents separate green waste, large appliances, construction debris, sheet metal, electronics, and household hazardous materials into distinct piles.
“This is just an example on Beach Road of how it’s done. It’s the partnership of the residents and the debris efforts,” Grant said.
Bermudes urged residents not to put regular household trash on debris piles. “Your debris, if it was not caused by the typhoon, more than likely it would not be picked up,” he said.
Bermudes also flagged safety as a continuing concern, particularly at intersections where traffic signals remain out. He asked drivers to treat those intersections as four-way stops and to slow down.
“It would be so sad to lose anybody post-Sinlaku because of, again, lack of safety measures out there,” Bermudes said.
Bermudes pointed to subcontracting on the debris mission as a positive sign for the local economy, with grass-cutting outfits converting their trailers into white-goods haulers and other small operators picking up work. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ debris operation, while federally managed, is being executed by an entirely local workforce, Grant said.
Bermudes said additional programs are coming online soon, including Disaster SNAP through the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, a short-term workforce program for unemployed residents through the Department of Labor, and Disaster Unemployment Assistance similar to the pandemic-era Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has received more than 500 applications and is moving toward $4.5 million in requested assistance, Grant said.
Residents seeking Individual Assistance can register online at disasterassistance.gov, by phone at (671) 735-1050 locally, or at the FEMA helpline at 1-800-621-3362. The Survivor Recovery Center on Beach Road is open indefinitely and has specialists who can help residents through the registration process, troubleshoot denials that are usually requests for more documentation, and answer questions on inspections.
