'Major' damage as super typhoon hits US islands

A “super typhoon” with the force of a category-five hurricane tore through the US Pacific territories of Northern Marianas and Guam on Monday, with authorities saying they had received reports of “major” damage on the small island of Rota.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said that the “entirety” of Rota was in the eye of Super Typhoon Bavi, with winds of up to 180 miles (290 kilometers) per hour before moving “ever so slowly away” westwards.

But the group of islands – several thousand kilometres (miles) west of the mainland United States – was by midday still being buffeted by fierce winds and driving rain that left residents holed up indoors.

When the storm first hit early Monday, the NWS urged Rota’s roughly 1,500 residents on X to “treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to an interior room or shelter NOW!”

Local authorities on Rota -– the southernmost part of the Northern Marianas, less than 80 km (50 miles) north of Guam — said they had received reports of “major damages”, but with communications difficult the extent was unclear.

“We are hanging in there. We are experiencing heavy winds and flooding here… Some people are already reporting major damages,” the Rota Municipal Operations Center’s public information officer Lou Rosario said.

Rosario added that some cellphone services were down because of a fallen tower.

Previously, the NWS had warned that a direct hit on Rota would make most of the island “uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer” with nearly all trees snapped and power outages for “weeks to possibly months”.

The island of Tinian, northern parts of Guam and the southern tip of Saipan experienced winds equivalent to a category-one hurricane, NWS meteorologist Marcus Landon Aydlett told a briefing on Facebook Live.

“Super Typhoon Bavi is leaving the area,” he said. “Gradually, conditions are going to be improving.”

‘Super typhoon’ Bavi heads for US Pacific islands

The Northern Marianas and the nearby separate US territory of Guam are collectively home to around 210,000 people.

Authorities on Guam had said the island could see eight to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of precipitation, resulting in potential flash flooding.

The NWS said that winds of 50-80 mph and gusts of 100 mph were expected to last through late afternoon.

“Residents should remain sheltered in place. NWS continues to describe this as an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” it said.

Edwin Santa Theresa, a 56-year-old health clinic worker on Tinian, said that residents were “prepared” for the storm.

“I think our main problem will be fuel because the supply is limited,” he told AFP.

“Our power was only restored to my house four days ago (from a previous typhoon in April), but now it’s out again. I just hope that after this typhoon passes, electricity will be restored quickly.”

Rowell Mariano, 61, in Saipan, the main island of the Northern Marianas, also said that the April storm was worse for him.

“(Super Typhoon) Sinlaku was stronger because the center of the storm passed directly over Saipan,” he said.

“During Sinlaku, our house was flooded because of the strong winds and heavy rain, and our ceiling was damaged. Sinlaku was really traumatic for us.”

In 2023, another massive storm, Mawar, the biggest in decades, did huge damage in the area.