Global Courant 2023-05-23 19:54:21
Typhoon Mawar could hit Guam on Wednesday with the strength of a Category 5 hurricane, forecasters warned, as local authorities ordered residents in coastal areas of the Pacific island to evacuate.
On Tuesday afternoon, a typhoon warning was in effect for Guam, a US territory, and Rota, a nearby island. said the National Weather Service. Guam has a population of over 150,000, many of whom live in coastal communities.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero had ordered residents in the low-lying coastal areas of the island evacuate before 6:00 PM local time. Authorities advised all other Guam residents to stay indoors.
Mawar, which had strengthened on Tuesday, was upgraded to a Super Typhoon late in the afternoon, on the brink of a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 155 miles per hour. the weather service said. The super typhoon classification is given to tropical cyclones with wind speeds of 150 mph or higher.
If the storm makes landfall on Guam with the strength of a Category 5 hurricane, it would make landfall with more force than Hurricane Ian, which was a Category 4 storm when it stormed into Florida in September, killing at least 114 people and a shell of wreckage that was dazzling even to Floridians who had survived and rebuilt after other powerful storms.
Mawar’s eye was located 125 miles southeast of Guam late Tuesday, the weather service said.
Tropical storm-force winds, classified as 39 mph or more, were expected to arrive on the island Wednesday morning and then intensify.
“It is almost certain that the system will remain at or near Super Typhoon intensity (150 mph or higher) before the eye passes over or near Guam,” forecasters from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a service operated by the US Navy, said.
The intensifying typhoon was moving to the northwest at 7 mph and was likely to pass “very near or directly over Guam” on Wednesday, bringing not only high winds but also life-threatening storm surges and 2 feet of rain to some areas said the weather service. said in a forecast.
The storm’s biggest impacts will begin Tuesday night and peak in the overnight hours through Wednesday, said Brandon Bukunt, a meteorologist with the Guam Weather Service.
As the storm approaches the islands, the winds will “pick up,” Mr. Bukunt said, and the outer showers could bring heavy downpours, increasing the likelihood of flooding, including in Guam, home to Andersen Air Force Base.
The authorities said Tuesday that the base would close its gates at 10 p.m. and that several military facilities on the island were in a “state of readiness” for the storm.
The difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is only in name and based on geography. Typhoon is used for tropical cyclones that develop in the Northwest Pacific and affect Asia. Elsewhere they are called hurricanes.
Typhoons can form all year round, but are most common from May to October.
Mawar, a Malay name meaning “rose,” is the second named storm in the Western Pacific this season. The first, Tropical Storm Sanvuweakened in less than two days.
Claire Fahy, Lauren McCarthy, Eduardo Medina and Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.
