Good Information but HORRIBLY WRITTEN

The Saipan Tribune never fails its readers to deliver the biggest island stories, but the only problem I have with the articles is how they are delivered. For example, The article NMI braces for Melor's wrath by Ferdie de la Torre explains the local reaction to a typhoon that is on a war path to the Northern Marianas Islands (NMI). De la Torre included the Typhoon's statistics and status, regions where shelter's could be found, and even commentary from locals and businesses. It was thorough research on how the island was responding to the impending crisis. The article also assured the people of the NMI that professionals of the Federal Emergency Management Agency who specialize in natural disaster precautions were on-hand to assist during and after the typhoon. However, the tribune failed to get any significant comment from these FEMA officials.

I was interested in each bit of information the tribune dished out but the story was rough and very poorly put together. Towards the end (after all the hullabaloo about Melor turning into a super typhoon), De la torre says it begins to drizzle. This should have been announced in the first paragraph to inform the people about the typhoons current progress. Secondly, the grammar was just awful. It was obviously written in such a rush that no attention was paid to detail. For example, this opening paragraph that introduces the readers to the story is actually one, large run-on sentence.

"The CNMI battened down the hatches yesterday as it braced for Typhoon Melor, which gained strength as it whirled closer to the Northern Marianas, its 140 miles per hour winds expected to become a super typhoon today, Saturday."

De la Torre shoud have broken it up and made it more comprehensive and fluid. This entire story is filled with little grammatical quirks, but there was valuable information that somewhat made up for the poor compilation.