Typhoon Mawar Could Hit Guam With the Force of a Category 5 Storm

Typhoon Mawar threatened to hit the U.S. territory of Guam on Wednesday with the force of a Category 4 hurricane, forecasters warned, as the authorities urged coastal residents to seek shelter immediately and power outages rippled across the island.

The typhoon weakened from Category 5 strength as it approached, but officials warned it remained extremely dangerous and was already bringing strong winds to the island as of 2 p.m. local time. The eye of the storm was about 45 miles east-southeast of Guam, the National Weather Service said, and the typhoon’s impact was expected to peak between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Brandon Bukunt, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Guam, said the typhoon’s path is “fluid,” making it difficult to pinpoint when or where the storm could make landfall.

“When you’re dealing with a tiny island in the huge Pacific Ocean, these little details and wobbles of the storm path matter,” he said.

A typhoon warning was in effect on Wednesday for Guam and Rota, a nearby U.S. island, the National Weather Service said. Guam has a population of more than 150,000 people, many of whom live in coastal communities.

Residents remaining on Guam who were not in concrete or concrete-reinforced structures were urged to go to emergency shelters. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero had ordered residents in the island’s low-lying coastal areas to evacuate by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

President Biden declared an emergency for Guam on Tuesday night, allowing the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist with relief efforts.

Emergency shelters were at 26 percent capacity as of Wednesday morning, officials said. No flights were allowed to or from the territory on Wednesday because conditions were already too dangerous. The Guam Power Authority said it had become too dangerous for repair crews to address power outages, and that more outages were expected.

Tourists wanting to leave the island had to leave by Tuesday by plane, while most residents, who are accustomed to such storms, were prepared to ride out the typhoon.

“I doubt it could be worse than anything I’ve already been through living on Guam,” said Carlo Sgembelluri Pangelinan, 42, who sells container homes in a store in Barrigada Heights, a hilly neighborhood near the island’s international airport.

Still, he added, he worried about people who did not have adequate shelter, and animals without owners to care for them, including stray dogs.

Mawar, which had been strengthening on Tuesday, lost its Super Typhoon status, which requires winds of 150 m.p.h. or higher, as its winds decreased on Wednesday. Forecasters said it’s possible that the storm could intensify as the eye approaches Guam.

Mawar’s winds were expected to be around 140 m.p.h., with gusts of more than 170 m.p.h. It was expected to maintain its intensity into the night, according to the Weather Service.

The typhoon winds were expected throughout the region until about 10 p.m. local time, forecasters said, and then tropical storm-force winds, classified as 39 m.p.h. or above, were likely to remain overnight.

The typhoon, which was moving northwest at 6 m.p.h., will likely pass over Guam on Wednesday, the Weather Service said, bringing not only high winds but also life-threatening storm surges and nearly two feet of rain to some areas.

If the storm moves over the island, Mr. Bukunt said that because the typhoon is moving so slowly, it could cause landslides and increase the chances of flooding.

The authorities said on Tuesday that the Andersen Air Force Base would close its gates at 10 p.m. and that several military facilities on the island were in a “condition of readiness” for the storm.

The U.S. military controls roughly a third of the island, and Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, Joint Region Marianas commander, authorized the evacuation of defense personnel, dependents and employees in areas expected to be affected, according to The Associated Press.

All ships were moved out to sea as a standard precaution, according to the Navy, and any military personnel remaining on the island were sheltering in place. About 6,800 U.S. service members are assigned to Guam, according to the Pentagon, The Associated Press reported.

Guam has a long history of enduring powerful storms. In December 2002, Super Typhoon Pongsona came ashore with Category 4 winds that reached about 150 m.p.h., causing more than $700 million in damage.

In recent years, damage and deaths have been minimized because of stronger building codes and advanced warnings. No one died, for example, when Typhoon Paka lashed the north portion of the island for hours with 140 m.p.h. winds in December 1997.

In October 2018, Super Typhoon Yutu directly hit the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific just northeast of Guam. Its 170 m.p.h. winds destroyed dozens of homes, devastating communities.

The difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is in name only, and based on geography. Typhoons are tropical cyclones that develop in the northwestern Pacific and affect Asia. Elsewhere, they are called hurricanes.

Typhoons can form year-round but are most common from May to October.

Mawar, a Malaysian name that means “rose,” is the second named storm in the Western Pacific this season. The first, Tropical Storm Sanvu, weakened in less than two days.

Christine Hauser,Claire Fahy, Lauren McCarthy, Eduardo Medina, Victoria Kim, and Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.