The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is appealing for assistance from the United States Government following the damage caused by last week's Typhoon TingTing.
The Government has completed a damage assesment and found 66 homes were destroyed and 197 homes were damaged by the storm.
The governor's spokesperson, Virginia Villagomez, says unfortunately this level of destruction means they don't qualify for Federal Emergency Assistance, so they are appealing to the Small Business Administration.
"We're looking at the small business administration because their threshold is much lower. Their threshold is, it has to be 25 destroyed homes or businesses or 40-percent uninsured loss. So you know, we've met that threshold so the governor will be requesting a declaration. A lot of these people who have major damage to their homes or destroyed homes are, you know, low income."
Virginia Villagomez, the spokesperson for the Governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
