Champi narrowly misses Guam, passes 10 miles south of the island's southernmost tip
Updated: 3 minutes ago
By Pacific Island Times News Staff
(This is a developing story. We will continue to provide updates as necessary.)
Supertyphoon Champi began pulling away after making its closest approach to Guam about 4:26 a.m. today, passing about 10 miles south of Merizo and moving at 150 miles per hour.
While Champi may have left some significant impact, meteorologist Brandon Aydlett, said “we definitely spared the worst by seeing the eye and the eye wall passing just offshore of Guam.”
Champi continued to move west-northwest quickly at 16 miles per hour, ultimately limiting the duration of those severe typhoon conditions, as of 8 a.m., Aydlett said.
The Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense Office said typhoon and tropical storm warnings remain in effect as tropical storm-force winds of 39 to 73 mph continue. Typhoon-force winds of 74 mph or greater may still affect southwestern Guam.
Damage reports are not currently available.
“We're going to be going out to survey any damage. Right now, the reports that we are getting seem like people fared okay. That is great news," Aydlett said.
"We're going to go down and see just what type of damage occurred, if any, just to get a better understanding of what the wind speeds were in the far southern portion of Guam."
In the CNMI, Gov. David M. Apatang canceled Condition III for Saipan and Tinian effective 11 a.m. today, but Rota remains in Condition I.
"This is not an all clear. Damaging winds are no longer expected, but gusty winds, heavy showers and dangerous surf remain," according to the CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“Over the past six hours or so, we see that we had a very, very close passage of the eye of the intensifying Super Typhoon Champi, which passed extremely close to Guam,” he said. “We really can't get any closer than what we had without having a direct hit and significant and catastrophic impacts of a Super Typhoon striking Guam.”
President Donald Trump today approved an emergency declaration for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, paving the way for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster assistance to supplement local response efforts.
“We are grateful to President Donald J. Trump, the White House, FEMA, and our federal partners for acting quickly on our request,” Apatang said.
“This has been an incredibly difficult year for our islands. Our people have endured storm after storm, and each time they have shown remarkable strength and resilience. This federal assistance comes at a critical time,” he added.
The president’s action authorizes the coordination of all federal disaster relief efforts "to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe," FEMA said in a press release.
The weather service said damaging winds continue across Guam, with the strongest typhoon-force winds concentrated over southern Guam. Winds are expected to gradually weaken through this afternoon.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms continue, with flash flooding possible in low-lying areas, on roadways and in areas with poor drainage.
Guam and CNMI residents are advised to avoid flooded roads and stay away from the coastline due to dangerous surf and coastal flooding and to remain indoors.
"Cancellation of conditions means that damaging winds are no longer expected, although residents should maintain precautionary measures for strong gusty winds and heavy rain showers associated with feeder band activity," the CNMI emergency office said.
Officials warned that hazardous marine conditions, especially dangerous deadly surf and coastal innundation/run-up along west-facing shores, remain a significant threat.
“We've been fortunate not to see a lot of that heavy rainfall falling over us on Guam, but we did have a couple of flash flood warnings issued overnight for some of the accumulating rainfall, especially in the southern part of Guam,” Aydlett said. “We still have quite a few showers that we're going to go through as we proceed through Sunday afternoon.”
The Guam Power Authority said the island-wide power system did not experience a blackout, but substations Talofofo, Umatac, Radio Barrigada, and part of Pulantat lost power.
“As soon as it is safe for crews to begin restoration, they will begin restoring power to these substations,” GPA said.
GPA said it has about 51 percent of distribution feeders/circuits online and
most transmission lines powering the northern part of Guam are intact.
Feeders/circuits serving military installations, hotel rows in Tumon, Guam Memorial Hospital and Harmon Industrial Park remained online.
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