High waves crash against the coastline at a beach as the forecasted Super Typhoon Bavi approaches in Guam on July 5, 2026. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
United States: Howling winds and lashing rains battered Guam and the Northern Marianas late Sunday hours before the projected arrival of a "super typhoon" with equivalent force to a category-5 hurricane over the US Pacific territories.
Super Typhoon Bavi was forecast to roar westwards over the area early Monday with maximum sustained winds of up to 280 kilometres (173 miles) per hour and gusts of 333 kmh, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
The National 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 afternoon, there were few cars on the roads in Guam or the Northern Marianas -- between them home to some 210,000 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 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 told AFP.
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 told AFP.
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.
