Days after Typhoon Mawar devastates Guam, residents still grapple with power outages
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - It’s been days since Typhoon Mawar swept through Guam, and many residents still don’t have power.
“We had somebody’s mattress fly into our yard. So we’re just cleaning up pretty much whatever debris is in our yard. And now that we’re kind of done, we’re just relaxing outside and just waiting for the power to go back on, hopefully,” said Guam resident Dess Garrido.
During the typhoon, Dess Garrido and her three daughters were in their home in the Village of Dededo.
She says they dealt with minor flooding.
Since the storm passed, they’ve been showering on the military base.
Although they had water pressure Saturday, that eventually shut off again.
“It’s like whenever it rains, everybody just takes out their tubs just fill it up with rain water pretty much,” said Garrido.
In the touristy part of town, Garrido says many of the hotels were flooded and had shattered windows.
Garrido says she’s been able to stock up on groceries.
Fast-food restaurants are open but aren’t selling fountain drinks.
Pacific Air Cargo’s first relief flight to Guam took off Saturday morning with electrical power generators on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“So the majority of the 150,000 people that live on the island were without electricity since Wednesday night’s hurricane, so this was the most essential thing was to get electricity connected again so that refrigeration can be operating. The hospital was operating on a standby generator, but many other things, as you can well imagine, rely on, you know, reliable electrical supply,” said Paul Skellon, The Director of Marketing & Communications of Pacific Air Cargo.
Garrido says she and her family have been staying outside for most of the day as they patiently wait for the power to be restored.
“It’s okay, we got. We got some reception here in there, but that’s fine. We’re new. We can make this work,” said Garrido.
If you’d like to help those in Guam affected by the typhoon, you can visit RedCross dot org or text “TYPHOON” to 90999.
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