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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, December 12, 2002

Hawai'i speeds up relief for devastated Guam

 •  More stories, photos from Pacific Daily News

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i relief efforts for friends, family and businesses on Guam accelerated yesterday as telephone service improved and the scope of the devastation from Typhoon Pongsona grew increasingly apparent.

Mike Fox, owner of Hawaii Modular Space, is donating a 40-foot container worth of company furniture to the typhoon recovery effort.

Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

More than 1,700 homes were destroyed and another 2,000 damaged. Water, electricity, fuel and other necessities were in short supply.

The U.S. Pacific Command yesterday started coordinating several military efforts for Guam, including millions of dollars in supplies, an emergency hospital and personnel. The American Red Cross Hawai'i State Chapter will begin sending 3,000 "comfort kits" of toiletry items, starting today. And dozens of local businesses, big and small, donated thousands of dollars for aid efforts and began collecting supplies to send to Guam, though they had no idea how to get them there.

Airline service has not returned to normal, and the major port remains closed because of a fuel depot fire.

Two fuel tanks that ignited during the storm burned themselves out yesterday, but fires still burned through parts of the island's fuel storage facility. Plumes of smoke, visible for miles, still rose from tanks.

Residents had gathered in long lines at gas stations earlier in the week, but stopped yesterday after officials announced that pumps were closed to the general public until all fires had been extinguished.

Donations welcome

Send checks or money orders made out to the American Red Cross to the Hawai'i state chapter, 4155 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816. The American Red Cross requests that checks be designated to go to the National Disaster Relief Fund.

The gas shortage was slowing damage assessments by the American Red Cross. The federal government approved food stamps for residents, but the gas shortage kept the Department of Public Health and Social Services from staffing distribution centers, and residents could not travel to pick up the vouchers.

Officials today made some fuel available to nongovernment groups and news organizations.

As the sporadic contact between Hawai'i and Guam improved, the magnitude of the problems became personal.

"I had mixed emotions," said Maj. Ralph Hood of the Salvation Army's Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division when he finally reached the division's Capt. David Harmon by phone yesterday. "It felt good to finally talk with him, but as he told the story of the needs, my heart became burdened. If we could get them supplies tomorrow, it would be great. But it's going to take some time."

Japanese tourists, from left, Takashi Hayashi, sister Akiko and brother Hiroshi use a broken pipeline across the Guam Reef Hotel to shower.

Ron Soliman • Pacific Daily News

People who have lived through Guam storms of the past said yesterday that Pongsona, which slammed the island Sunday with 180 mph winds, was more devastating than anything they had seen. No deaths have been linked to the typhoon, but its financial and emotional toll have yet to be tabulated.

Pongsona flooded the Cancer Institute of Guam with 4 1/2 feet of water, and there's no more fuel to run its generators, leaving at least 30 patients with no way to get their radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

Dr. Bobby C. Baker, president and founder of the Cancer Institute of Maui, which runs both institutes, said he and his staff were trying to figure out how to get the patients to Maui. Baker doesn't even know how many patients are overdue for their treatments "because all of their records are under water right now.

"I don't think the people of Hawai'i — and definitely the people on the Mainland — have any idea how horrible and devastating this is," Baker said. "My patients have lived through storms and typhoons, and they've said this is the worst."

The U.S. Pacific Command yesterday was coordinating several military efforts for Guam:

  • The Air Force, Navy and Army sent, or were sending, 34 military and civilian personnel. Nine of them were civilian structural engineers and electrical specialists who got on a 747 chartered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday to bring more than 200 workers from the Mainland.
  • The Navy began distributing more than $4 million worth of medical supplies, medicine, bottled water, generators and electrical repair trucks.
  • The Air Force was sending a 25-bed field hospital that will arrive this weekend to supplement Guam Memorial Hospital.

"Resources are scarce," said Ensign Mike Morley. "The people there have little water, no electricity."

The American Red Cross Hawai'i State Chapter has found only five trained volunteers willing to spend the minimum three weeks in Guam over the holidays. The organization usually gets 30 to 40 trained volunteers to respond to a disaster, but the low turnout doesn't bother Jocelyn Collado of the American Red Cross.

A National Guardsman prepares to buy fuel at a 76 station in Sinajana by a sign announcing "no fuel" for the general public. Fuel tank fires at the commercial port have inhibited gas distribution throughout Guam.

Masako Watanabe • Pacific Daily News

"We can't send additional staff anyway, because of the shortage of lodging, and cars that have no fuel," she said.

Pongsona's destruction has strengthened the connections that hundreds of friends and family and some of Hawai'i's biggest businesses share with Guam.

DFS Group Ltd, one of Guam's biggest companies, has 800 employees, many of whom have worked in the Hawai'i stores.

The main store in Guam, called Pleasure Island, closed right after Pongsona hit and has been running on generators since. One of DFS' merchandising buyers, Joann Camacho, is the wife of Gov. Felix Camacho.

"There's a special affection that we have for Guam," said Sharon Weiner, group vice president for DFS' business development, public and government relations. "There are a lot of family relationships between Guam and here. Guam is a very close-knit community, and we want to make sure that everybody is helped."

Yesterday, First Hawaiian Bank — which closed two of its Guam branches and was operating its main branch in Maite on generator power — donated $25,000 to the Typhoon Pongsona Relief Fund of the American Red Cross.

Bank of Hawai'i, which suffered severe damage to one of its branches and two of its First Savings and Loan branches, saw seven of its 160 employees lose their homes, and nine other employees' homes were damaged. The bank established a special account yesterday to accept Red Cross donations.

The Salvation Army's Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division announced it would collect money to buy supplies. More than $30,000 collected for Christmas food baskets for needy families was distributed after Pongsona hit.

Quinton Deitas, 15, left, and Murphy Stephen, 17, carry water to their households in Maite, one of many neighborhoods hit by shortages.

Ron Soliman • Pacific Daily News

Communications Pacific, Hawai'i's largest public relations company, made plans yesterday to accept donations of clothing, bottled water and powdered milk at its Fort Street offices to send. As with other Hawai'i companies, several Communications Pacific employees have worked in Guam, and some clients operate in both Hawai'i and Guam, such as Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, Macy's, McDonald's, Dick Pacific and Aloha Shoyu.

One Hawai'i woman whose most vivid childhood memories on Guam are of a typhoon lifting the roof from her house as the family huddled in a closet, began organizing donations of supplies yesterday that she hopes will help her family and friends back home in southern Guam.

Barbra Pleadwell, who runs her own Honolulu public relations firm, is getting help from Hawai'i Modular Space and the Bishop Street Exchange Club to collect supplies at Hawai'i Modular's Kapolei offices. CSX Lines, which ships goods from Hawai'i to Guam, has agreed to ship the 40-foot container for free.

Her father, Jeff Pleadwell, runs Jeff's Pirates Cove in Ipan, Talofofo. Her sister, Sara, moved in with their father when Sara's home was damaged in the last storm in July.

One phone call Pleadwell made after the typhoon hit was cut off. Another provided sketchy information about damage. "It's pretty stressful," Pleadwell said. "My mother's on the East Coast and she's in tears."

Reached at his bar and restaurant on Guam yesterday, Jeff Pleadwell expressed frustration with the lack of information and fuel.

"Everybody's going to be out of everything pretty soon," he said. "Water? We're going to run out. If your generator doesn't already have fuel, when it runs out, you're finished."

Donna Klopenburg yesterday prepared meals of chicken kelaguen, red beans and rice and was getting ready to deliver them to the firefighters and police officers at the site of the fuel fire that was keeping ships out of Guam.

Klopenburg looked out a window of her home on Nimitz Hill and saw plumes of black smoke and flame. Outside, there was almost no traffic but plenty of cars without gasoline.

"We get our share of typhoons," Klopenburg said. "But it's hard to get used to them."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.