Typhoon Mawar passed over Guam Wednesday night (5 pm local time and 2 am CST) with sustained winds of 140 mph and gusts up to 165 mph, the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane. The center of the storm was located 15 miles north-northeast of Guam and was moving northwest at a slow 8 mph, according to the latest tropical cyclone advisory. It’s rare for the island to be directly hit by these kinds of storm. Only eight such storms have passed over it in the last 75 years. This would have been the strongest storm to hit the island since 1962.

Even though the storm did not directly hit the island, most of the island has lost power. Nearly all of Guam Power Authority’s circuits were impacted by the storm and only about 1,000 of its 52,000 customers still had electricity last night. Guam Memorial Hospital maintained power via standby generator. We will have more updates when we here from friends in Guam.

KUAM’s coverage of Typhoon Mawar includes viewer videos of raging waves, toppled trees and debris, sharing what Mawar looks like from their perspectives.

Guam NWS says they recorded significant rainfall exceeding a foot and approaching two feet in central and northern Guam in the past 24 hours. “We are waking up to a rather disturbing scene out there across Guam,” Landon Aydlett said. “Most of Guam is dealing with a major mess that is going to take weeks to clean up.” 

Guam remains under COR 1 and Rota, is under Typhoon Condition I, but the U.S. National Weather Service on Guam has reported that Mawar is now a Super Typhoon as it leaves the Marianas. The storm is continuing towards Luzon, Phillippines.