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Hurricane Rose barreled toward Guam on Wednesday afternoon, bringing hurricane-force winds that toppled trees and left much of the U.S. without power, authorities said.
The storm, with Category 4 hurricane force, is the strongest to approach the Pacific island in years and could intensify on Wednesday afternoon, forecasters warned. The Guam Power Authority said the island’s energy grid was only providing power to about 1,000 of its estimated 52,000 customers, and it was too dangerous for repair crews to go out.
The rose had not officially made landfall on Guam by midday, and the island may not be hit directly, said Brandon Bukunt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Guam. But the storm’s western eyewall has moved over the island, he added, and residents have felt the hurricane’s winds.
As a sign of the storm’s strength, it broke the radar unit that sent images of the storm to Mr. Bukunt’s office, and the largest tree outside the office fell onto the street.
The 150,000 or so people who live on Guam, an island nearly the size of Chicago located about 1,500 miles east of the Philippines, are used to tropical cyclones. The last big one, Super Typhoon Pongsona, made landfall in 2002 with Category 4 hurricane force and caused more than $700 million in damage.
In recent years, damage and deaths from major hurricanes have been minimized on Guam thanks to stronger building codes and more advanced warnings. In most cases, “We just barbecue, chill, adapt” when a tropical storm hits, said Wayne Chargualaf, 45, who works for a local government housing authority.
But because it’s been so long since Pongsona, “We have a whole generation that has never experienced this,” he said. “So some doubts are starting to enter my mind. Are we really ready for this?”
The center of the storm was about 40 miles east-southeast of Guam at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Weather Service said in an update. The storm is moving northwest at about three miles per hour, and its impact is expected to peak in the afternoon.
Mawar has weakened from Category 5 strength, but the maximum sustained wind is still pushing about 140 mph, the same as that of Category 4 typhoon, Mr. Bukunt said. The southern eye wall is still far from the coast, but it has the potential to bring stronger winds to the island, along with heavy rain.
“Before we lost the radar, that’s where all the bad weather was,” he said.
President Biden declared a state of emergency for Guam on Tuesday night, allowing federal agencies to assist in relief efforts. On Wednesday, the island is firmly on the emergency foot, with an evacuation order, a flash flood warning and stops for commercial flights.
And at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, all aircraft had left the island before the storm or were placed in hangars, the Air Force said in an email.
Tropical cyclones are called typhoons or typhoons depending on where they originate. Typhoons, which tend to occur from May to October, are tropical cyclones that develop in the northwest Pacific and affect Asia. Research says climate change is increasing the intensity of tropical cyclones, and their potential damage, as warmer oceans provide more energy.
Mawar, a Malaysian name meaning “rose,” is the second storm in the Western Pacific this season. The first, Tropical Storm Sanvu, made landfall in less than two days.
Carlo Sgembelluri Pangelinan, 42 years old, who sells container houses in a shop in Barrigada Heights, a hilly, affluent neighborhood near Guam’s international airport, said he doubted the storm would be worse than what he had lived through.
Still, Mr. Pangelinan added, he is worried about people who don’t have enough shelter, and animals who don’t have owners, including stray dogs.
The island’s population is predominantly Catholic, and Guam’s Roman Catholic church said in a message to its congregation on Wednesday that the fear and anxiety spreading across the island is understandable, in part because Super Typhoon Pongsona has left an “indelible impression” that remains can be done. felt more than 20 years later.
“Something good can be found in the midst of the storm,” the message said. “The kindness and care of the people that emerged during the ordeal was one of them.”
John Yoon, Victoria Kim, McKenna Oxenden and Jin Yu Young contribute reports.
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