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Parishioners of St. Paul’s Church in Saipan usually gather in a building owned by the Korean Methodist Church to celebrate the Eucharist. But on May 1, Episcopalians on the largest island and the capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands met at an open pavilion near the beach, after their church building was damaged by flooding from a powerful tropical cyclone.
Founded in the 1990s, St. Paul’s comprises seven families, or 25 individuals, ages 3 to 60. Most are migrants from the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall in the western U.S. territory around 10:30 a.m. on April 14. The large eye of the storm passed over the islands of Saipan and Tinian, five nautical miles away. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that Sinlaku had sustained winds of 145 mph just before landfall.
It was a Category 5 storm when it hit Micronesia’s Chuuk State, just days earlier.
A post-storm report by the National Weather Service indicated that the typhoon claimed 12 lives across Chuuk State, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, making it one of the deadliest storms to strike Micronesia in decades. Chuuk is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, while Guam, like the Northern Mariana Islands, is a U.S. territory.
According to the Pacific Daily News, Super Typhoon Chataan in 2002, which killed 48 people, is the only typhoon with a higher death toll than Sinlaku.
Sinlaku crippled Saipan’s electrical grid, with residents left without power or running water for weeks. “Almost all the structures actually experienced flooding and damages,” said the Rev. Canon Irene Maliaman, vicar of St. John the Divine Church in Guam, who also leads St. Paul’s.
“St. Paul’s members reported the complete collapse of roofs and tin wall structures, interior damage to their homes, and flooding as water entered through windows, ceilings, and structural gaps,” a message from the Diocese of Hawaii said.
All members of the Saipan church have been accounted for and are safe, though cleanup and repairs continue at their homes. The apartments they rent are usually semi-concrete because they are cheaper, Maliaman said. By law, individuals who are not of Northern Marianas descent cannot own land. Most of the church’s members are blue-collar workers, several of whom earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
St. Paul’s members received financial and in-kind assistance through support from the Diocese of Hawaii and Episcopal Relief & Development. The Diocese of Hawaii, through the bishop’s discretionary fund, provided $10,000 for disaster response in Saipan. Episcopal Relief & Development gave $20,000.
“Cash support is critical because individuals know best what they need to recover from a disaster,” said Katie Mears, senior technical specialist for U.S. disaster and climate risk at Episcopal Relief & Development. “This allows families to quickly get the exact supplies they need while supporting the local economy.”
Maliaman also purchased wipes, solar lights, battery-operated fans, and food not only for Episcopalians affected by the typhoon but also for members of the wider community. More than 26 families received help from St. Paul’s during the first week after the storm.
Maliaman flew to Saipan from Guam days after the typhoon, when most of the island had no power and essentials such as groceries and gasoline were being rationed. “You have to line up for six hours sometimes to get $30 worth of gas and water,” Maliaman told The Living Church.
The line for water was especially long, she said, and some hotels ran generators for only two hours a day. The island’s only hospital, Commonwealth Health Center, was powered by an emergency backup generator.
By last week, some areas had been re-energized, though thousands of homes and businesses still have no power. Maliaman was on the island for the second time since the typhoon struck and celebrated the Eucharist with the people of St. Paul’s. Battery-operated lights kept the pavilion illuminated late into the night, while a folding table covered in white cloth served as an altar.
After the May 1 service, members of St. Paul’s distributed bags filled with rice, canned goods, butane, solar lights, and hand sanitizer to about 50 families. The priest, who is also Filipino, spent time helping people fill out forms so they could receive financial assistance from another partner nonprofit of St. Paul’s, Community Organized Relief Efforts (CORE).
“These are folks from the wider community,” Maliaman told TLC of the recipients, noting that even the cat seen in the photo is not part of the church.
The building of St. John’s Church in Guam was also flooded because of the recent storm, but did not suffer any structural damage.
According to Yale Climate Connections, Sinlaku is a classic type of early-season super typhoon expected when the ocean-atmosphere system is moving toward a strong El Niño event, though such storms are becoming more intense.
Mears told TLC in a statement that with the increasing frequency and severity of disasters caused by the climate crisis, “it’s imperative that we continue to equip partners to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of their vulnerable neighbors after these events.” Just recently, Camp Mokule’ia on the island of Oahu in the Diocese of Hawaii experienced three winter storms within a 30-day period.
On May 4, the National Weather Service in Guam said that a tropical disturbance forming northeast of Chuuk was expected to strengthen over the following days.
Saipan is about 6,000 to 6,500 miles from the U.S. mainland, and no direct flights are offered from the contiguous United States.
The churches in Saipan and Guam were formerly part of the Episcopal Church in Micronesia, which traces its origins to a petition submitted by civil workers at Andersen Air Force Base to Bishop Harry Sherbourne Kennedy of Hawaii for an Episcopal mission in Guam. The small jurisdiction was under the presiding bishop, who assigns a bishop in charge.
During the 81st General Convention, both churches officially became part of the Diocese of Hawaii.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
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