Guam assesses the damage after Typhoon Mawar

HAGATNA, Guam — Guam residents and officials emerged from homes and shelters Thursday to survey the damage done to the U.S. Pacific territory after a long night of hunkering down as Typhoon Mawar’s howling winds shredded trees, flipped vehicles and knocked out utilities.

The central and northern parts of the island received more than 2 feet of rain as the eyewall passed, and most of Guam received about a foot of rain during the storm, said Brandon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The island’s international airport flooded, and the swirling storm churned up a storm surge and waves that crashed through coastal reefs.

“We are waking up to a rather disturbing scene out there across Guam. We’re looking out our door and what used to be a jungle looks like toothpicks — it looks like a scene from the movie ‘Twister,’ with trees just thrashed apart,” said Landon Aydlett, his twin brother and fellow NWS meteorologist.

“Most of Guam is dealing with a major mess that’s gonna take weeks to clean up,” he added.

The strongest typhoon to hit the territory of roughly 150,000 people since 2002, Mawar briefly made landfall around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday night as a Category 4 storm at Andersen Air Force Base on the northern tip of the island, weather service officials said.

“It was on land for about 30 to 35 minutes before it moved back offshore,” said Patrick Doll, another NWS meteorologist.

As it crept slowly over the island, the typhoon sent solar panels flying and crumbled part of a hotel’s exterior wall to the ground, according to videos posted on social media. At what felt like its peak intensity, the winds screeched and howled like jets, and water swamped some homes.

Leah del Mundo spent the night with her family in their concrete home in Chalan Pago, in central Guam. She told The Associated Press they tried to sleep but were awakened “by violent shaking of the typhoon shutters and the whistling strong winds.”

“It’s not our first rodeo,” she said via text message. “We’ve been through worse. But we brace ourselves for the cleanup, repairs, restoration afterwards.”

Buildings made of concrete in storm-prone Guam seemed to fare well. “If your home is not made of concrete, your life and property are in peril with typhoons like these,” del Mundo said.

In Tumon, on Guam’s northeastern shore, winds tore a granite countertop from a hotel’s outdoor bar and tossed it 4 feet in the air. Guests scrambled to stack chairs to brace the doors, and windows buckled and creaked.