Flying tree limbs, collapsed buildings as major typhoon in Pacific bears down on remote US islands

A major typhoon was approaching several remote U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, with people seeking shelter from flying tree limbs and collapsed buildings amid a combination of heavy rain, wind and flooding.

“It’s hitting us hard,” Mayor Ramon “RB” Jose Blas Camacho of Saipan, where it was nighttime, told The Associated Press. “It’s so difficult for us to respond with this heavy rain, heavy wind to rescue people. Objects are just flying left and right.”

Camacho said some people have been rescued. He said trees were thrown about and wooden and tin structures had collapsed. He said he hoped the glass door to his office doesn’t break.

“It’s already bending. That’s how powerful this is,” he said.

Saipan is the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, where Super Typhoon Sinlaku was slowly approaching at about 3 mph (5 kph). Conditions were expected to worsen overnight, the National Weather Service said.

The typhoon had reached wind speeds of 150 mph (241 kph), according to the Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam. It said a landfall near Tinian, about 6 miles (9 kilometers) from Saipan, or the small uninhabited island of Aguijan, is “ imminent.”

Camacho was concerned about the slow speed of the storm.

“That’s the scary part, ” He said, saying “it’s better to speed up so it can just exit.”

Farther south, in Guam, a U.S. territory with several American military installations and about 170,000 residents, “torrential rainfall is occurring and flash flooding is ongoing,” the weather service said. We ask that everyone remain indoors and away from windows.”

In Saipan and Tinian, flash flooding was expected to continue into Wednesday. About 50,000 people live on three islands in the area, with the most on Saipan, known for its laid-back resorts, snorkeling and golf as well as the capital.

While it’s expected to weaken slightly over the next few days, Sinlaku should cross by the islands as a Category 4 or 5 typhoon.

The typhoon has stayed mostly on a track that puts it going over or just skirting along Tinian and Saipan, said Joshua Schank, a lead meteorologist in Guam for the weather service.

Saipan was the site of one of World War II’s bloodiest battles in the Pacific, in which more than 50,000 Japanese and American soldiers and local civilians died.

In Guam, where Typhoon Mawar knocked out power for days in 2023, U.S. military officials warned personnel to prepare for the storm and shelter in place. The military controls about one-third of the land on the island, a critical hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific.

Before turning toward Guam and the Northern Marianas, the storm left significant damage to the outer islands and atolls of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, said Landon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the weather service on Guam.

Glen Hunter, who grew up on Saipan, has weathered numerous typhoons.

“We sit in what they call ‘Typhoon Alley,’” he said early Tuesday after waking up to strong gusts and seeing downed trees.

For the most part, residents live in sturdy, fully concrete homes and those in substandard wooden houses with tin roofs tend to stay with family or in government shelters, he said.

Tourism-dependent Saipan was still recovering from 2018’s Super Typhoon Yutu when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, he recalled. The economy has yet to rebound, he said.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved emergency disaster declarations for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, allowing for additional help with emergency services.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it is coordinating support across multiple agencies, dispatching nearly 100 FEMA staff as well as personnel from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A super typhoon is a name given to the strongest tropical cyclones that brew in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where Earth’s most intense storms usually form.

Monitored by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam, super typhoons are the equivalent of Category 4 or 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic, with winds of at least 150 mph (240 kph). There have been more than 300 super typhoons identified since the warning center started using that name nearly 80 years ago.

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Associated Press reporters Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.