More Relief Arrives in Saipan as Typhoon Response Grows
As islanders awoke Wednesday morning to limited electricity and no running water a week after Typhoon Sinlaku struck, Samaritan’s Purse aircraft touched down again on Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Marianas. The plane carried tons of additional supplies and resources to help the grieving paradise recover.
Our 767 brought more relief items—such as durable tarps, solar lights, generators, and more—to further support our multifaceted response in the remote U.S. territory in the western Pacific. Also aboard the aircraft were clinic restart modules which will help the local medical system get back on its feet.
Samaritan’s Purse has already set up a fixed-location outpatient medical clinic adjacent to the main hospital damaged in the storm and partnered with dozens of local churches to distribute thousands of emergency supplies to those most in need. We’ve also set up two state-of-the-art desalination systems pumping thousands of gallons of drinking water for families to come and draw from. Our mobile medical units have started to see patients at shelters—usually schools or public halls—for those displaced by the super typhoon.
We are supporting local medical systems with outpatient care.
Through it all, the Gospel is proclaimed.
“We do all of this work with the goal that they would see the love of Jesus in us and the joy that comes with having a relationship with Him,” said Sammy Doebler, Samaritan’s Purse deputy team lead for this response.
Care for the Storm-Weary
What were often simple medical needs before the storm have become stressful urgencies in the days since.
Florenda and Ludimer were among the first patients to walk into our clinic. Florenda was treated for a deep, persistent cough. Ludimer received medication to manage his diabetes.
Florenda and Ludimer were among the first patients to walk in our clinic next to the local hospital. Florenda had a heavy, persistent cough made worse through the storm, while Ludimer had lost the medication he needed to manage his diabetes. Our doctors treated them, and dozens of others, in our opening day on Saipan.
“We didn’t have enough money to get new medicine because we had just paid for it before the storm,” Florenda, a housekeeper, said. “So thank you for your help. I don’t know where we would have been without this facility.”
Samaritan’s Purse medical teams are helping patients in Jesus’ Name after a typhoon that crippled portions of the Mariana Islands.
The medical teams are helping patients in Jesus’ Name and have opportunities to share the hope found only in Him.
While the local hospital is operational, Samaritan’s Purse medical programmes are critical to help care for the surge of people seeking medical treatment. The needs are especially great among the people who lost their homes in the storm.
In addition, at a handful of locations across the island, Samaritan’s Purse mobile medical teams have set up clinics at schools and town halls that have been converted to sheltering centres for the displaced.
Outside one local elementary school gym, Rita, a deaf mother of three, found the healing she had been craving for over two years. She had high blood pressure due to an infection in her foot but could never afford to be seen by a doctor. Our doctors removed the infection, sutured the wound, and gave Rita the necessary medicine to recover.
Rita and her son, Chris, are grateful for the treatment at our clinic of Rita’s long-infected foot.
She and her 11-year-old son, Chris, cried as her wound was bound up.
“So many times, I’ve asked for this help,” she signed. “But I am never seen or listened to. You, doctor, have seen me and helped me. You are a good doctor.”
Water Flows Again in Saipan
Tin roofs and scattered debris still litter the roadside. Once-lush tropical foliage has been beaten-down into snapped, leafless trees that serve as a reminder of the storm’s devastating strength. This region is often hit with powerful typhoons, many local residents say, but Sinlaku unleashed powerful winds and flooding for multiple days as the storm’s eye lingered above the island.
Fernando and his sons were grateful to get jerry cans full of water.
Water and electricity were wiped out, and families have been reeling ever since.
“We’ve nowhere else to go,” said Fernando, a father of three children under 6 years old. “It’s been a struggle like I’ve never seen. My kids aren’t used to it. It’s hard for them and it gets harder for us.”
Fernando’s concerns eased as he arrived at the Samaritan’s Purse water station with multiple empty canisters to fill. He and his family hadn’t bathed for a week and his wife hadn’t been able to cook or wash their clothes.
“But this is where we can go to now,” the father said as he filled his jugs full of water. He said he’d return tomorrow for more. “This means so much to us. Thank you.”
Water points are critical as residents continue to go without access to clean water in their homes.
Throughout the heat of the day, dozens of others arrived at the water point at the beach with empty jugs to fill up. Among them, a taxi driver and his two children from the opposite side of the island came to draw water; an older woman invited her two neighbours, who are both young mothers with infants, to get water to bring home; and an elderly man with his two dogs filled his trunk with canisters of water.
“All these folks come and get water, and they’ll get thirsty again,” said Brent Kejr, a Samaritan’s Purse staffer who set up our desalination units on the island. “But our hope is that through this interaction they see the love of Jesus.”
Partners Meet Typhoon’s Fury with Love
At churches across Saipan, the love of Christ is shared with each tarp, solar light, blanket, or mosquito net given—reminding families who have lost everything that God is still with them.
Shelter, water, and lights to see by at night are critical items for families as they await local infrastructure to be restored.
“I pray that they understand that there is a God in Heaven who loves them, and I hope they are seeing and sensing that love through the outpouring of love through Samaritan’s Purse,” said Pastor Steven Dame of Saipan Community Church.
He and over a dozen volunteers helped distribute hundreds of Samaritan’s Purse shelter supplies to families who had their roofs damaged, experienced flooding, or lost many of their possessions during the typhoon. As these families swarmed the parking lot of the church to receive these items, they left with hope for a better tomorrow.
“If you look at the life of Jesus, so many times He met the physical need and then addressed the spiritual need of the hearts and minds He was interacting with,” Pastor Steven said. “That’s our approach here.”
Our work on Saipan and Tinian—another in the Northern Mariana Island chain—is only just beginning, so please pray for Samaritan’s Purse teams as we go out into the communities most devastated by the typhoon. Pray that many would respond to the message of the Gospel as we serve in Jesus’ Name.
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