Bailey Thompson | News Editor

On the morning of Oct. 25, a super typhoon with Category 5 sustained winds of 180mph hit the Northern Mariana Islands in the U.S Pacific territory, according to NPR. Impacting the islands of Saipan and Tinian, meteorologists at Weather Underground affirmed that Super Typhoon Yutu has been the strongest storm anywhere in the world for 2018.

“Roadways were littered with downed power poles and tree branches,” stated journalists for the Washington Post. “Parked cars were smashed by debris, some overturned by the powerful winds. What used to be buildings were reduced to haphazard piles of tin and wood.”

Hearing about this at Western, ASWOU decided that it was important to give students the opportunity to help those in Saipan and Tinian who are currently without electricity and water and have had their homes destroyed.

“ASWOU was contacted by two students who are from the Island of Saipan and wanted to see if there was a way to set up a fundraiser to donate items that are needed to join the bigger efforts in Salem,” said ASWOU president Evelyn Guzman. “Since students directly contacted us asking for help we found it of importance to help out in whatever form we could.”

For two weeks up until the end of November, ASWOU placed a donation bin in the Werner University Center for people in the Western community who wanted to help those impacted by Super Typhoon Yutu. Some of the items that people were encouraged to donate were bottled water, canned food, clothing, hygiene products, mosquito coils and flashlights, among other things.

At the end of the month, the donations were collected by the larger efforts in Salem so that they could be sent to the islands that were affected.

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton