Government working to help shelterees

Emergency shelters remain open following Typhoon Dolphin, with the government working to address this issue. Guam's remaining emergency shelters are slowly coming to a close. Special assistant to the governor Martin Benavente says officials are working overtime to help shelterees transition home.

"We're going out there and we're meeting with the families and they're telling us that their houses before the storm have been lost or damaged," he expressed. In response to these needs the government has been issuing basic materials to help accommodate these families, with Benavente saying, "Today we're going to be handing out a few of these canopies so that people can move back, and there's a total of seven families that are ready so we have another seven that we're going to be finishing off today, and when that's done, Agana Heights will officially shut down."

There were a roughly 100 individuals housed at the Agana Heights Gym. According to shelter manager Genny Reyes, the goal is to help them transition home as soon as possible. Aside from returning to a sense of normalcy, it will allow them to rebuild and recoup their belongings. "They also need to be there when Red Cross and FEMA, and whoever else comes around," Reyes added.

Once Agana Heights closes, next is Tamuning. Benavente said officials are already there getting the process started, noting, "You know, housing is not a new thing for this administration we've been working on this for the last four years, and we're looking at ways where these people that are out there misplaced and in canopies and other things, we can find a way to get them gainfully employed and then hopefully bring them back to normalcy."

Benavente encourages affected individuals to visit the Department of Labor in Anigua to learn more about a new jobs program. "We have a program that the governor has put to release and we're looking for people who are unemployed, people that are without homes that need some kind of income, to come down and sign up so we can find them something," he said.