Typhoon Mawar pulls away from Guam, island assesses damage after 'braving the storm'

Typhoon Mawar moves away from the island of Guam on Thursday, after bringing strong winds up to 225 km / h to this American territory in the middle of the Pacific, where the authorities declared to have "braved the storm" and continue to assess the damage

Typhoon Mawar pulls away from Guam, island assesses damage after 'braving the storm'

Typhoon Mawar moves away from the island of Guam on Thursday, after bringing strong winds up to 225 km / h to this American territory in the middle of the Pacific, where the authorities declared to have "braved the storm" and continue to assess the damage.

According to the US Weather Service (NWS), the typhoon, rated 4 on a scale of 5, is now moving towards the Philippines and Taiwan, accompanied by even stronger winds, with a speed of 240 km / h.

“We now continue to focus our efforts around repairing infrastructure and restoring services to residents,” island governor Lou Leon Guerrero said on Instagram.

"I want to thank you all for taking all the prescribed precautionary measures and (for) braving the storm once again."

Residents of the island of 170,000 inhabitants reported an improvement in the situation on Thursday evening.

"The winds are finally calming down. (There is) a lot of debris in my garden," Beckie Merrill, a 46-year-old teacher who lives in the south of the island, told AFP.

Tens of thousands of homes remain without power on Thursday according to the Guam Power Authority, the island's electricity supplier, which said a blackout was averted and acknowledged that the cuts "make operations difficult" conducted from the Mawar pass overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.

The full storm damage assessment is not yet complete.

Images available on social media show uprooted trees, overturned vehicles, solar panels flying through the air, a wall collapsing under the pressure of the wind, and waves several meters high crashing furiously on the coasts.

Ocean conditions remain dangerous, even for large vessels, according to the NWS.

At 1:46 p.m. local time (0346 GMT), the typhoon was located some 217 km northwest of Guam, meteorologists said.

Forecasters' models suggest that Mawar, which is expected to maintain its intensity for the next two days, is heading towards Taiwan and the Philippines.

Before the typhoon arrived, the governor of Guam had worried about the safety of the inhabitants. Mawar is "the most powerful storm of the last 20 years", recalled Lou Leon Guerrero.

Lost in the middle of the Pacific, Guam is located near the Mariana Trench, more than 6,000 km west of Hawaii and about 1,500 km east of the Philippines.

US President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency on Tuesday so that the federal government can speed up aid and relief on the island.

"The White House is in close contact with the government of Guam and has offered all the necessary support," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre insisted on Wednesday from Washington.

In addition to tourism, the American army is one of the lungs of the territory. Nearly 22,000 soldiers and their families are stationed on the island, which sees long-range bombers and nuclear attack submarines pass by.

Guam is also home to the United States' major fuel and ammunition reserves in the Pacific.

"All military aircraft took off or were placed in protective hangars, and all military vessels put to sea before the onset of damaging winds," said area spokeswoman Katie Koenig.

According to her, the remaining staff "have been instructed to shelter in place". But the military "regularly train to react to natural disasters" and are ready to deploy to help the population "once the order to end the alert has been given".

05/25/2023 12:04:39 - Los Angeles (AFP) - © 2023 AFP