Guam’s governor has issued a mandatory evacuation order for low-lying coastal areas ahead of Super Typhoon Mawar. Mawar barreled into Guam as a powerful Category 4 storm Wednesday, pummeling the U.S. Pacific territory with high winds, heavy rains, and a dangerous storm surge that swamped low-lying areas as residents hunkered down in homes and shelters.
The typhoon’s center passed over the northern tip of Guam on Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service said. It is the strongest storm to hit the territory of over 150,000 people in decades.
Meteorologists suspect the storm clipped the far northern part of the island, but otherwise it was in the channel between Guam and its neighbor to the north, Rota, warning coordination meteorologist Landon Aydlett said by telephone. Peak winds at the weather service office in Guam reached 105 mph (169 kph), but it later lost its wind sensors, he said. The building was vibrating, with a “constant, low rumbling,” and doors and windows were shaking, he said….