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Super Typhoon Mawar struck the northern edge of Guam on Wednesday with winds of 140 mph, lashing rain and lightning, the National Weather Service said, and cutting power to most of the island.
The slow-moving storm – the strongest to hit Guam in decades – appeared to have crossed the Rota Channel area close to Andersen Air Force Base, the weather service said in a Facebook Live broadcast. It apparently damaged or disconnected wind-speed indicators after they measured winds of about 104 mph.
Guam is a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean home to about 170,000 Americans, about 6,000 miles west of Los Angeles.
The worst of the storm hit the island in the afternoon, severing power to most residents and businesses, and continued with strong winds into the night. Authorities warned residents to remain indoors as tornado-strength winds continued and flash-flooding was predicted. Satellite radar showed the storm’s winds at up to 140 mph, the weather service said.
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the weather service said in a broadcast.
‘We are at the crosshairs’:Guam braces for direct hit from Super Typhoon Mawar
Forecasters had worried the storm would hit shore directly over the island, but it appeared to have made a gradual shift northward as it approached. The island is about 30 miles long and 12 miles at its widest point.
The storm was crawling along at 8 mph late Wednesday, a slow-moving typhoon compared with others that have moved at up to 15 mph, the weather service said.
Mawar was the 15th typhoon of at least Category 4 intensity to pass within 70 miles of Guam in records since World War II, according to Weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
Typhoon Mawar takes out power
The Guam Power Authority reported that most of the island lost power shortly after 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday and that only 1,000 of its 52,000 customers still had power.
Before the storm arrived, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration. Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the declaration will support mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.”
The U.S. military also sent ships away as the storm approached. Guam is a crucial hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific, and the Department of Defense controls about a third of the island. All ships were moved out to sea as a standard precaution, according to the Navy, and any personnel remaining on the island were sheltering in place. About 6,800 U.S. service members are assigned to Guam, according to the Pentagon.
Authorities had urged residents to seek shelter in sturdy buildings or designated emergency shelters and to bring a week’s worth of food and water, an indication of how long they believe it could take to restore services to some areas.
Explaining hurricane categories:What is the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind speed scale? Breaking down the hurricane category scale
What’s the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?
A typhoon is the same type of storm as a hurricane. They are both tropical cyclones. The only difference between a hurricane and a typhoon is where the storm occurs, according to the National Ocean Service.
Typhoons form in the western Pacific Ocean, while hurricanes form in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
What is a ‘super’ typhoon?
A typhoon becomes a “super” typhoon when its maximum sustained winds reach 150 mph. That’s equivalent to a strong Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
Where is Guam?
Guam is a U.S. island territory in the Micronesia region of the western Pacific Ocean, nearly 3,800 miles west of Honolulu. Its residents are U.S. citizens, but they cannot vote for president and do not have a voting member in Congress.
The United States acquired Guam at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 and has largely used it as a military base to control the Pacific Ocean. It was occupied by the Japanese military for three years during World War II and retaken by the U.S. in the summer of 1944, which allowed bombers to attack the Japanese mainland.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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