Business group says Guam's quick recovery underscores the value of infrastructure maintenance

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

Guam’s power and water services were quickly restored within a week after Super Typhoon Sinlaku pounded the region on April 14, paving the way for the island’s prompt recovery.

“Sinlaku made another point obvious: recovery is faster when organizations have plans before the storm arrives,” the Guam Chamber of Commerce said in a statement, crediting the Guam Power Authority and the Guam Waterworks Authority “for the urgency and professionalism they brought to the recovery effort.”

GPA reported a 90 percent feeder restoration and GWA posted a 99.7 percent recovery with within four days after Guam returned to Condition of Readiness COR4.

Sinlaku, a Category 4 storm, smashed into Guam and the Northern Marianas with high winds of 155mph, storm surge and rainfall flooding.

The April 14 storm, which lingered for more than 24 hours, was the second disastrous typhoon to hammer Guam since 2023 when Mawar left the island in chaos—without power, water and communications systems for several months.

The Chamber of Commerce noted that every storm tested the systems, exposed the island’s weak points and disrupted the community’s normal routine.

The business group noted the “swift, visible recovery” after Sinlaku was “something worth recognizing.”

John Benavente, GPA general manager, attributed the quick recovery to “years of strategic planning.”

 “Our ability to reconnect the grid, stabilize generation and restore power in phases is not by accident,” he said. “These are the results of long-term planning, strong partnerships, and a clear focus on reliability and resilience.”

John J. Cruz Jr., P.E., assistant general manager of Engineering & Technical Services, said GPA’s modernization was guided by the Integrated Resource Plan.

“We have turned the corner and we are accelerating,” Cruz said, noting progress in grid modernization, customer experience, affordability, and digital transformation, with reliability, resiliency and affordability as key priorities.”

The chamber said Guam’s swift recovery highlighted “a model that works” and that GovGuam should learn from it. 

The business sector noted the government’s practice of discussing infrastructure “only when something breaks.”

“Budgets expand when a crisis hits. Repairs happen when failure becomes unavoidable. And then, as time passes, maintenance is pushed aside until the next breakdown. That cycle is expensive, disruptive and entirely preventable,” the chamber said, stressing that public infrastructure require ongoing maintenance.

"This is why the Chamber continues to emphasize a simple standard for government budgeting: it must include deliberate, recurring funding for operations and maintenance, and it must include planning that prevents facilities from slowly deteriorating," the chamber said.

"Capital projects may be necessary and important, but capital without maintenance is a broken promise. Guam cannot build its way out of deterioration if it refuses to maintain what it owns," it added.