Super typhoon hits Guam

Advertiser News Services

HAGATNA, Guam — Super Typhoon Pongsona, with winds as high as 160 mph and 25-foot surf, pounded Guam today.

The eye wall of the storm, containing its strongest winds, was 35 miles wide.

"We are in the eye wall right now," Sarah Prior, forecaster at the National Weather Service's Guam office, said at about 4:30 p.m. today (8:30 last night Hawai'i time).

At that time, the island could expect at least four or five more hours of intense storm, she said.

Debris flies above trees in the southern village of Merizo as Typhoon Pongsona batters Guam. The U.S. territory was still recovering from a devastating typhoon that struck the island five months ago. Masako Watanabe • Pacific Daily News

The other side of the typhoon will be equally strong, she said.

Winds had reached 130 mph within the storm, Prior said, and those were expected to gust to 160 mph.

At landfall Pongsona was a Category 3 storm in the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, making it capable of causing extensive damage.

Typhoons become Category 4 when winds exceed 131 mph. Typhoons become Category 5 when winds exceed 155 mph; Category 5 storms are capable of causing catastrophic damage. The National Weather Service said Pongsana reached that level.

Prior said the storm knocked out the official wind sensors on the island, so an official maximum wind speed for Pongsona wasn't known. Tracking radar was also out.

"The radar is down, and it won't be coming back until after the storm," she said.

Flying glass injured guests at the Outrigger Hotel, said officials at Guam's Civil Defense Command Center. They said they had reports of one home destroyed, utility poles and tree limbs down, and flying tin, wood and other debris. At least 2,200 people were in shelters.

Earlier, Guam residents stoically prepared for the worst. The destruction of Typhoon Chata'an, which struck the island just five months ago, was still fresh in their minds.

Nail by nail, Celina Quidachay and her family used those five months to rebuild their tin-and-wood home. Chata'an had torn off its roof and turned it inside out.

"It took everything but the bathroom," Quidachay said today in an emergency shelter.

As the gusts slammed the building, Quidachay said: "I am feeling like it is a curse. It's a lot to handle.

"The worst part is waiting to find out, to see what I and the kids still have."

Chata'an, which hit the island in early July with 100-mph winds, left Guam without electricity for days and damaged the island's water and sewage systems. Chata'an caused only minor injuries, however.

With its winds up to 50 percent stronger, Pongsona was capable of much more damage.

In December 1997, Typhoon Paka slammed into Guam with winds in excess of 200 mph. That storm left thousands homeless and caused extensive damage to businesses and schools. Damage estimates from Paka were put at more than $500 million and it took months for the island to recover.

A Coast Guard spokesman in Honolulu said last night that the Galveston Island, a 110-foot cutter, and an unspecified number of personnel from a Marine Safety Detachment were available for duty in Guam.

He said that if any assistance were needed those units would make it available and that if any emergency supplies were required they would be flown in.

A Continental Airlines spokesman in Honolulu said all flights to Guam were canceled until at least tomorrow.

Pongsona was supposed to pass, meteorologists initially said, far out at sea, bringing only fringe-strength winds, the 40 mph kind. But that's not what happened: The typhoon held its track for Guam, never heading north as expected.

That left Quidachay and many others searching for shelter — many, like her, who had lost a home just months ago.

At Astumbo Elementary School alone, where she sought refuge, there were more than 400 people seeking safety. Some families were even advised to go to other shelters because Astumbo's classrooms are filled to capacity.

But Quidachay said her family will remain strong in the face of more hardship, with laughter as their defense.

"We are still smiling. As long as we have family, we are fine," said Quidachay, who was teased by her loved ones during her interview.

As the storm began slapping Guam's shores with towering white surf, whipping the island with whistling gusts and cold rain, a few people ventured out for last-minute shopping. But their spirits were good. Hard economic times, another typhoon — no matter —Êat least that was the mood before the eye wall hit the island.

"They come in here for junk food," said the smiling Giovanna Leon Guerrero, a member of the family that runs the S & L Mart in Inarajan.

The power was already out as of 7 a.m. — four hours before the eye wall hit the island — but a generator kept ice frozen and people buzzed through the dimly lighted store, madly fleshing out their "typhoon survival kits."

"They get candles, and batteries, too," said Leon Guerrero. "And ice, water and beer."

As she talked about all the last-minute shoppers, David Meno plopped his purchase on the counter: a box of candles and about a half-dozen packs of ramen.

"It's what the wife wanted," he said.

The same scene played out in stores — the few that were open —Ê all over the island. At scattered gas stations, long lines formed as well, as people filled tanks and gas cans to use for their generators.

But a few had a different idea about how to greet the typhoon. At the overlook to Talofofo Bay, Richmond Arciaga and his friends were entranced by the sets of snarling waves hitting the shore. Their surfboards were in the flatbed.

"It's good, but it's a bit crazy," he said, explaining that if the waves falter, you could be dragged out to sea.

He wasn't going to risk it.

Arciaga said that when he arrived just before 7 a.m., he saw two surfers preparing to head out into the bay. As one of the guys took off his shoes, a surfboard was lifted by the wind, spun around a few times and then flew across the road. The board missed hitting the surfer by inches.

"Man, these guys were crazy," he said, shortly after explaining he planned to surf to about an hour before the eye wall hit —Êjust enough time to drive back home.

They're crazy?

"Look, I am crazy," Arciaga said, smirking. "But that was stupidity."

Brenda Summer, Theresa Merto, Steve Limtiaco, David Crisostomo and Scott Radway of the Pacific Daily News, The Associated Press and Advertiser staff contributed to this report.