Tens of thousands of people in the Northern Mariana Islands were asked to shelter in place on Tuesday, as forecasters warned that a powerful storm barreling toward the region could cause “devastating damage.”
The “extremely dangerous” super typhoon Sinlaku was expected to make landfall as a Category 4 storm over Tinian and Saipan, on Tuesday evening, bringing widespread rain and wind speeds of up to 175 miles per hour, the National Weather Service said. At about 1 p.m. local time, it was about 50 miles southeast of Saipan.
A typhoon warning was in effect for other parts of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, about 1,600 miles east of the Philippines, that is home to more than 47,000 people.Guam, another U.S. territory in the western Pacific region, was under a typhoon watch.
“Devastating damage is possible,” the service said, warning specifically about the danger from airborne debris. Homes with metal roofs will likely be destroyed, it said, and water and electricity will be unavailable for days or weeks after the storm passes.
On Tuesday morning, the office of Gov. David M. Apatang urged residents of Saipan, the capital and population center of the territory, as well as Tinian and Rota islands to shelter in place.
Rego Jicko, 48, fled with his wife and three children from Kagman, a village on Saipan, to a local hotel on Monday morning as the weather conditions worsened.
Mr. Jicko said he had never evacuated during previous typhoons, but this one was the worst he had ever experienced.
“This is the strongest ever and scariest typhoon in our history,” he said.
On a video call, Mr. Jicko showed the view from his hotel of palm trees whipping in the wind, heavy rainfall and the whistling of wind.
“We’re just going to stay calm, be patient, and pray that it will go our way,” he said.
Representative Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the territory’s delegate in Congress, said the region was still recovering from the last super typhoon, which hit in 2018.
“This is devastating because we only have one industry, it is tourism,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.
She said she hoped that the U.S. government would provide relief in the aftermath of the storm, but also support for the territory’s long-term economic recovery.
Ms. King-Hinds, who was in Washington to brief the federal government on the typhoon, said residents back home had been urged to seek shelter and stay away from coastal areas.
President Trump approved an emergency disaster declaration for the region on Sunday.
Laura Chung is a Sydney-based reporter and researcher for The Times, covering Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
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