Typhoon Approaches Guam and Northern Marianas with Category-5 Winds

Residents of Guam and the Northern Marianas prepared Saturday for a typhoon forecast to bring sustained winds of 269 kilometers per hour and gusts of 324 kilometers per hour. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported the storm was moving westward and expected its eye to pass near the island of Rota on Monday.

Guam was scheduled to enter Condition of Readiness 2 at 10:00 pm local time, with emergency shelters set to open Sunday morning. Officials instructed residents to bring seven days of food and water, medicines, bedding, and personal hygiene items; pets were not permitted.

Many of the islands' roughly 200,000 inhabitants lined up at petrol stations and hardware stores in recent days to buy fuel, plywood, and other supplies. Both Guam and the Northern Marianas declared a state of emergency, and plans for United States 250th anniversary celebrations were canceled.

"My girls were saying to me it's scary. But it will be okay. My house is concrete so the worst that can happen is a window could blow in," a 48-year-old resident told AFP on a Guam beach. "Typhoon Sinkalu in April wasn't as bad as Mawar in 2023. That brought my whole house down," said another resident.

A 48-year-old man in the Northern Marianas said the community had purchased water, candles, batteries, and canned goods ahead of the storm.

The Northern Marianas archipelago is home to around 40,000 people and Guam to around 170,000. Super Typhoon Sinlaku struck the region in mid-April, knocking out power for tens of thousands, overturning cars, and causing one confirmed death with five others missing.

The American Red Cross warned that some residents remained in temporary shelters or under makeshift roofs. The European Union's Copernicus Marine Service reported the world's oceans experienced their hottest June on record, and the World Meteorological Organization stated El Nino conditions had begun in the tropical Pacific.