Residents in Guam brace for typhoon
HONOLULU – Authorities in Guam warned anyone not living in a fully concrete house to head to safety elsewhere, and emergency shelters began to fill as residents braced for Typhoon Mawar, a powerful storm that could deliver the biggest hit in two decades to the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero urged residents in a Youtube message to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the National Weather Service said could hit southern Guam around midday Wednesday. She ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate ahead of the storm as residents stocked up on jugs of water and generators.
“Current forecasts are not favorable to our island,” she said. “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now, stay calm, stay informed and stay safe.”
If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam.
The storm was intensifying as it approached Guam, and the weather service warned of a “triple threat” of winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge. The center of the Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 130 mph, was about 190 miles southeast of Guam on Tuesday and was “wobbling” to the north-northwest at 8 mph, according to the weather service.
Winds could reach as high as 150 mph, Guerrero said in her video message. And Doll said the typhoon could cause “extensive damage.”
The governor has placed Guam essentially in a lockdown.
At the island’s grocery and hardware stores Monday, people left with shopping carts full of canned goods, cases of water and generators, the Pacific Daily News reported.
Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures to consider moving for safety. Many homes are made of wood and tin.
Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings.