‘Very dangerous’ super typhoon nears U.S. Pacific islands
Howling winds and lashing rains battered Guam and the Northern Marianas late on Sunday (July 5, 2026), hours before the projected arrival of a “super
Howling winds and lashing rains battered Guam and the Northern Marianas late on Sunday (July 5, 2026), hours before the projected arrival of a “super typhoon” with equivalent force to a category-5 hurricane over the U.S. Pacific territories. Super Typhoon Bavi was forecast to roar westwards over the area early on Monday (July 6, 2026) with maximum sustained winds of up to 280 kilometres (173 miles) per hour and gusts of 333 kmh, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre. The Weather Service (NWS) called the typhoon “very dangerous”, warning of possible “catastrophic wind damage” near the eye as well as storm surges and “hazardous” surf. Already on Sunday (July 5, 2026) afternoon, there were few cars on the roads in Guam or the Northern Marianas — between them home to some 2,10,000 people — with police driving around warning people to take care. Pinky Cubacub, 55, said as she boarded up the windows of her eatery that she had lined up early on Saturday (July 4, 2026) to buy $500 worth of plywood at a lumber store.
“I cannot afford to lose so many days. It hurts,” she told AFP. Call center employee Arabella Paulino, 48, said: “My girls were saying to me it’s scary. But it will be okay.” “My house is concrete, so the worst that can happen is a window could blow in,” she said. Japanese tourist Miku Sakurai, 25, was supposed to fly back to Tokyo with her friends, but their flight was cancelled. “We will stay in the hotel when the storm comes. I am scared,” the office worker said. Around a dozen surfers, however, were making the most of the windy conditions at one beach in Guam’s Talofofo Bay. “There’s quite a lot of debris in the water but it’s a lot of fun,” said one of them. ‘Praying’ The Northern Marianas in the western Pacific have a population of around 40,000, and nearby Guam — a separate U.S. territory, although both are part of the Marianas archipelago — about 170,000.
Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which hit the region in mid-April, knocked out power for tens of thousands of inhabitants, uprooted trees, overturned cars and ripped metal roofs off buildings. In 2023 another massive typhoon, Mawar, the biggest in decades, caused devastation too. Bavi was forecast to pass nearest the small island of Rota, the southernmost part of the Northern Marianas, at around 8:00 a.m. on Monday (2200 GMT Sunday), the NWS said. If Bavi tracks near or over Rota, home to around 1,500 people, most of the area “will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. Many non-concrete, non-reinforced homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse,” it said. “Nearly all trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months.” “By working together and taking the necessary precautions, we can help protect our families, neighbors and community.
The BriefWire