A life-threatening typhoon is barrelling its way across
the western Pacific with sustained wind speeds of more than
250km/h, with people in the area warned to prepare
urgently.
Typhoon Bavi is expected to make landfall on
Monday morning. However, seas are expected to become
hazardous as soon as Saturday afternoon
Patrick
Bowsher of the Guam National Weather Service said the storm
is strengthening in intensity and poses a serious threat to
life.
It’s currently blowing at 257 kilometres an
hour, he said.
“With these wind speeds pretty much
anything that is not really heavy, anything that’s loose,
any debris anything like that is just going to get picked up
and thrown around very easily.”
By 7am Saturday local
time, Bavi had become a Category 5 Super Typhoon, and people
in the area were warned to “prepare today”, the US National
Weather Service in Guam said.
At about 10:30am on
Saturday NZT, Typhoon Bavi was about 770km east of Guam and
travelling at about 10km/h.
“It is going to impact all
of the Marianas from Guam all the way up to [Saipan],
however, the degree will vary depending on how close they
are to the eye,” Bowsher said.
For their safety, he
said people need to hunker down and prepare for serious
impact: “that’s putting it mildly”.
“Prepare today for
the protection of life and property …All residents across
Guam and the CNMI should plan for and anticipate at least
tropical storm conditions,” the US National Weather Service
in Guam said, in a Facebook post.
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“Islands closest to
the passage, or those potentially with a direct hit, will
experience much stronger conditions.
“The current
forecast track of Bavi could still shift to the north, and
closer to Saipan, or to the south, and closer to Guam. These
shifts remain likely in the coming days as Bavi
nears.”
They urged people in the region to stay up to
date on the changing conditions, on their
website.
The warnings as Bavi approaches come as
some residents were still without electricity following
super typhoon Sinlaku.
Sinlaku battered the Marianas
and Guam in April, causing widespread devastation to local
infrastructure and the economy, and wiping
out up to 60 percent of the livestock on
Saipan.
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