Super Typhoon Bavi approaches near Guam with extreme, life-threatening winds
Bavi, a massive cyclone approaching the Mariana Islands east of the Philippines, was forecast to strike Rota early Monday morning local time.
Residents of Guam and surrounding U.S. island territories in the western Pacific were urged to take shelter as Super Typhoon Bavi was expected to make landfall early Monday, threatening an area still recovering from another destructive storm earlier this year.
"They are currently already encountering catastrophic wind," he said of Rota, a territory of fewer than 2,000 people northeast of Guam, adding that an extreme wind warning was in effect for the island. The cyclone is forecast to be a category five super typhoon with winds that could reach 180 miles per hour and gusts of 215 miles per hour, Montvila said.
In addition to Rota, typhoon warnings were in effect for Guam, Tinian and Saipan, while tropical storm warnings and watches were in place for other islands in the area.
The storm comes months after Super Typhoon Sinlaku , the strongest tropical cyclone this year, battered islands in the region in April, bringing ferocious winds and relentless rain. A cyclone becomes a super typhoon when it has maximum sustained winds of 150 mph or stronger.
Bavi posed an "imminent danger to life," Montvila said, with the weather service telling residents across the islands to immediately move to interior rooms where they were sheltering and stay away from windows.