Behind the scenes: Lessons from Saipan after Super Typhoon Yutu

What can Hawaiʻi learn from Saipan after it was hit by the most powerful storm to hit any part of the nation in eight decades?

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Marcel Honoré takes us behind the scenes of his reporting on Saipan, where he shared the story of Hopwood Middle School — a haunting symbol of the storm’s legacy and how Pacific cyclones, their threats growing amid climate change, can continue to plague communities years after they pass.

The insides of classrooms were visible where they shouldn’t have been. Buildings that had seemed sturdy were thrown apart. Computers and desks were splayed across the ground.That wait has not only taken a toll on the several thousand students, most of them Pacific Islanders or of Asian ancestry, who’ve attended Hopwood since the storm hit.

It’s also fueled a long-standing perception among U.S. territorial residents around the globe that federal agencies shunt them to the back of the line.

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