Powerful Typhoon Mawar slams Guam with heavy rain and damaging winds

The eye of Typhoon Mawar has passed just north of Guam, but the eyewall – the strongest part of the storm – is bringing powerful winds and heavy rain to the US territory.

The strongest storm to impact Guam in decades, Mawar is pelting the entire 30-mile-wide island with hurricane-force winds.

The Guam International Airport recorded sustained winds of 71 mph with a gust of 105 mph Wednesday evening. An extreme wind warning was in effect for the northern part of Guam until 10:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. ET) for winds that could create tornado-like damage.

The northern third of Guam, including the village of Yigo, is being battered by the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall as the storm moves northwest.

“Mawar is now moving away from Guam,” the National Weather Service in Guam said. The center of the storm was located 15 miles north-northeast of Guam and was moving northwest at a sluggish 8 mph, the latest tropical cyclone advisory said.

Even though the center of the storm’s eye passed just north of Guam, most of the island has lost power.

At about 5 p.m., the storm’s maximum sustained winds were 140 mph with gusts up to 165 mph, the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

“Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to an interior room or shelter NOW!,” the weather service in Guam warned Wednesday evening.

Nearly all of Guam Power Authority’s circuits have been impacted by the storm and only about 1,000 of its 52,000 customers still had electricity, the authority said in a statement on Facebook at around 6 p.m. local time.

Guam Memorial Hospital is currently operating on power from a standby generator, it added. “We are working hard to maintain the last remaining customers through the storm,” the power authority said. “Our GPA team is prepared to immediately begin restoration as soon as winds decrease to safe levels,” it said.

The weather service issued a typhoon warning for the island for Wednesday, and flash flood and coastal flood warnings until Thursday morning.