Typhoon Mike

devastates Palau

By David North

PACKING 150- mile per winds at its center, Typhoon Mike struck the Palau islands November 10 and 11, wiping out most of the food crops, destroying hundreds of homes and knock ing out power and water throughout the 100-mile long archipelago. No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but damage estimates range up to several million dollars and it may be a year or more before island life can return to normal.

Palau President Ngratkel Etpison was off the island when the storm hit, meeting with Japanese investors in Honolulu.

Declining to return immediately, he

delegated responsibility for coping with

the disaster to his Vice-President, Kuniwo Nakamuri, who issued a State of Disaster Emergency on November 1 and immediately called for US Government disaster assistance.

Palau’s northernmost villages sus tained the greatest damage, including 100 per cent loss of food crops, according to Nakamura. It could take 12 to 18 months before new banana, cassava, taro, breadfruit and papaya crops are ready to produce. An estimated one third of the homes were lost in the northern villages while the other two thirds suffered damages ranging from lost roofs and walls to flooding and blown-out windows. Government buildings, wharves and facilities suffered compar

able damage.

The northern atoll ofKayangel, where winds gusted to 190 miles per hour, was hardest hit, with virtually all crops and buildings destroyed or heavily damaged.

Residents of Kayangel, which has about 150 people, complained that the govern ment radio station based in Koror was so late with reports of the storm that the

typhoon was already raging over the

atoll when the warning was broadcast.

The islands concrete school building, where most of the people took shelter, sustained minor roof and window dam age.

Winds in the capital of Koror, about 50 miles south of Kayangel, were re corded at 80 to 85 miles per hour.

Building damage was less severe, though most wood and tin structures lost their

roofs or received other wind and flying debris damage. The power systems serving the island’s major population center received the most serious damage.

Virtually all primary and secondary lines were blown down and several wooden poles snapped in the high winds. The roads were blocked by and water and sewer lines could not operate without power.

US Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and representatives from the Departments of Interior, Agriculture and the Small Business Administration reached Palau on the November 13 and spent a week compiling a damage assessment and coordinating initial disas ter relief efforts.

The US Navy sent 3000 pounds of tools and materials, several hundred plastic tarps and emergency meals from Guam, while Interior flew in several hundred 5-gallon plastic containers of drinking water, and an emergency order of antibiotics to combat an outbreak of pink eye that was affecting about 300 Palauns. Residents of Guam and the Guam government sent medicines and canned goods, while the Palauan com munity of Guam began shipping hun dreds of 50-pound sacks of rice. The Guam Power Authority, with funding from the Interior Department, sent a team linemen to help restore power, and by November 21 about 80 percent of the Koror system was operating.

Back on the island, President Etpison on November 21 requested US President Bush to issue a major disaster declaration for the islands. FEMA is expected to concur in that recommendation based on its assessment. Bush’s declaration would release millions in funds that could rehabilitate the island’s housing stock, agricultural production and utility infra structure.

In a sense the storm could prove to be a blessing in disguise for the islands, which have complained for years of a lack of adequate road, power, and water systems. The issue has become a sore spot in the Palau’s relations with Washington.

Palau also was lucky, because Mike was just beginning to build when it hit. After, the storm had time to intensify while crossing to the Phillippines, where it killed 320 people, injured 450 and left more than 200 missing. □