On Thursday, Guam survived its most severe storm in years, Super Typhoon Mawar, which brought gusts of up to 150 mph (240 kph) and torrential rain to the Western Pacific island.
According to the Guam electricity Authority, all but 1,000 of the island’s 52,000 homes and businesses lost electricity, although government officials reported nothing remarkable in hospital emergency rooms and only modest damage such as floods, falling debris, and downed power lines.
“I’m so relieved we’re safe. We made it through the storm. “The worst has passed,” declared Governor Lou Leon Guerrero in a video message.
Nonetheless, she advised people to remain at home for their own safety until the administration certified it safe.
“The roads appear to be passable, but you should not be on the road,” Guerrero said after touring the island, a US territory home to over 170,000 people, including approximately 10,000 US military personnel.
She had compared the storm to Typhoon Karen, which had flattened much of the island in 1962.
The eye of Super Typhoon Mawar passed just north of Guam early Thursday, heading northwest at a slow 8 mph and dumping up to 2 inches (5 cm) of rain per hour overnight, according to the US National Weather Service (NWS).
Images shared on social media showed dark clouds moving over beaches, rain lashing houses, and strong gusts bending palm trees.
The storm’s wind gusts put it in Category 4, the second-strongest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind scale, and just shy of Category 5.
People in Guam take typhoons seriously and often seek shelter in reinforced concrete structures, according to Landon Aydlett, the National Weather Service’s warning coordination meteorologist in Guam.
Following the storm, Guam’s Office of Civil Defense issued a notice informing residents that the highest level of alert remained in force.
“Along with tropical storm force winds, dangerous surf and seas remain.” “Remain out of the water due to life-threatening conditions,” according to the alert.
