President Trump on Aug. 4 approved a major disaster declaration for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands following Super Typhoon Bavi, which struck the U.S. territory between July 4 and July 12.
The declaration makes federal Individual Assistance available to affected CNMI residents and Public Assistance available for infrastructure repair. A separate order increased the federal cost share for assistance from an earlier typhoon declaration, reflecting the territory’s compounding recovery burden.
The CNMI is a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific with a population of approximately 47,000, all of whom are U.S. citizens. The island chain is particularly vulnerable to typhoons and has limited local resources for disaster recovery.
Federal assistance includes grants for temporary housing and home repair, low-cost loans for uninsured property losses and other programs to support individual and community recovery.
The increased federal cost share for the prior typhoon declaration acknowledges that the CNMI is managing overlapping disaster recovery timelines, straining territorial government budgets and administrative capacity.
FEMA’s Region IX Pacific Area Office is coordinating the federal response. The Office of Insular Affairs within the Department of the Interior also provides ongoing support to U.S. territories managing disaster recovery.