Parts of Northern Marianas could be without power for weeks after super typhoon
Some hard hit areas of the Northern Marianas could be without power and water for weeks after the Pacific Ocean islands were battered by a super typhoon, an official said Thursday.
The only hospital on Saipan, an island in the archipelago, suffered severe flooding and there were reports of major resorts that lost backup generators, said Ed Propst, a former lawmaker who works in the governor’s office.
“It’s pretty bad conditions right now,” he said, adding that residents were bracing for a long stretch without electricity and water.
Authorities were just beginning to assess the damage left behind by Super Typhoon Sinlaku. The storm first hit the islands Tuesday night local time and continued with a barrage of fierce winds and relentless rains for hours Wednesday that flipped over cars, toppled utility poles and ripped away tin roofs. So far, there have been no reports of deaths.
Power and water were out and many of the roads were impassable across Saipan and Tinian, islands in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, home to about 45,000 people, according to officials.
“We still have a shelter in place so first responders have not been able to do a full damage assessment,” Bernard Villagomez, public information officer for the territory’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said in a text message to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to send more personnel to the region and ramp up shipments of supplies.
The storm also battered Guam, another U.S. territory and the site of several American military bases, with tropical force winds.
The typhoon — the strongest tropical cyclone this year — was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (241 kph) when it made landfall on the islands, the National Weather Service said.
The monster storm still had winds of 125 mph (201 kph) late Wednesday night as it pulled away to the north from the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota, the weather service said. Sinlaku is expected start curving toward sparsely populated volcanic islands in the far northern Marianas.
The storm was about 170 miles (274 kilometers) northwest of Saipan on Thursday, the weather service said. Many sensors on the island were down, but the weather service estimated winds were about 60 to 70 mph (97 to 113 kph).
The winds made it unsafe to go outside, but some stores were open on Tinian on Thursday and people were rushing to purchase supplies, said resident Mathew Masga.
“While driving around, I noticed numerous wooden and semi-concrete houses with damaged rooftops due to the passing typhoon,” he said in a Facebook message to the AP. “Notably, many of our power poles and power lines are down.”
Images from Saipan and Tinian showed residential lots littered with debris and mangled trees. Winds crumpled metal bleachers at a sports field.
Resident Dong Min Lee shot video of a car sitting on top of two others in his apartment building’s parking lot. The winds tore off part of his balcony railing.
The American Red Cross and its partners were sheltering more than 1,000 residents across Guam and the Northern Marianas, agency spokesperson Stephanie Fox said.
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Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.