MORE INSTRUCTION TIME LOST
Supertyphoon Pongsona Batters Guam, Chuuk, and Rota

In early December Supertyphoon Pongsona battered a region that had barely begun to recover from last July’s Typhoon Chata’an. Pongsona caused significant damage in northern Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia before pounding the islands of Guam and Rota in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands with sustained winds of over 150 mph. In the days following the storm, President Bush declared both Guam and Rota federal disaster areas.

Six weeks after the storm, one quarter of Guam’s households still had no electricity, and many still had no running water. Guam’s public schools played an important role, providing shelter for three weeks to thousands who had been left homeless. Starting in early January, however, efforts were focused on restarting classes as quickly as possible. When schools started to reopen in mid-January, bottled water remained the only source of safe drinking water. Serious damage to their campuses forced several schools to schedule double sessions, with some students attending in the morning and the others coming in the afternoon. Guam’s public schools lost at least three weeks of instruction, in addition to the week that was lost after Chata’an.

Education on Rota was also affected by Pongsona. All three of Rota’s schools were damaged, and Rota’s students lost three weeks of instruction due to the storm.

Earlier in the week the storm caused damage to crops and buildings in the Hall and Weito islands in Chuuk State. Several school buildings in this region were seriously damaged. Chuuk’s continuing recovery from the devastation of Chata’an was set back considerably by this latest storm.