Typhoon Begins to Pound Guam With Wind, Rain

The outer fringes of Typhoon Gay began lashing Guam and the Northern Mariana islands with high winds and heavy rain early today. It is the sixth typhoon to hit or threaten the Marianas in three months.

“We feel scared. Just when they say it’s a ‘super typhoon,’ you get scared,” said Visi Quitugua, the administrative officer in the mayor’s office on Rota, the Northern Mariana island expected to get the brunt of the storm.

Gay was dubbed a “super typhoon” Thursday when its maximum sustained wind speed reached 150 m.p.h.

By 3 a.m., wind was blowing at 45 m.p.h. to 65 m.p.h. across the island of 2,300 people, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

Quitugua said about 70 people had gone to shelters while most of the population was at home, “all boarded up.”

Winds on Guam were gusting to 60 m.p.h., with “on and off” heavy rain, said Ken Bettini at Guam Cable TV.

The U.S. military’s Typhoon Warning Center on Guam reported the eye of Gay was 90 miles east-southeast of Guam at 6 a.m., moving west-northwest at 17 m.p.h., with sustained winds of 145 m.p.h. and gusts to 175 m.p.h.

Guam, with a population of 139,000, is expected to get 125-m.p.h. sustained winds, with gusts to 155 m.p.h., when the storm passes.

On Rota, the winds are expected to hit 140 m.p.h., gusting to 165 m.p.h. On Saipan and Tinian to the north, winds are forecast at 85 m.p.h., gusting to 105 m.p.h.

“All islands are at risk,” the typhoon center warned.

On Guam, volunteer Joaquin Blaz at the Civil Defense Agency said all preparations had been completed and some 4,000 residents had gone to shelters.

For Guam, the storm was expected to be comparable to Typhoon Omar, which hit the U.S. territory Aug. 28 and caused $500 million in damage.