Sinkalu continues to pack destructive winds over Marianas region; Guam faces power and water outages amid prolonged peak storm conditions

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

(NWS)-- At 7:16 a.m., the satellite shows the center of Typhoon Sinlaku  moving slowly north-northwest, just northwest of Tinian and  Saipan.

Extreme winds, associated with the eyewall, remain over  the islands and are expected to continue into late morning.

Widespread destructive winds in excess of 115 mph are expected.

The typhoon eyewall was moving north-northwest at 4 mph. Saipan and

Tinian are currently in the eyewall southeast of the eye according to satellite imagery.

Sinlaku is weakening and will continue a slow, but gradual, weakening trend

today and in the coming days for the duration of its existence. Sinlaku remains a powerful Category-4 typhoon.

This remains a long-duration event as Sinlaku moves slowly through the region.

(JIC)-- Guam remains in Condition of Readiness (COR) 1. Joint Region Marianas remains in TCCOR 1E, indicating destructive winds of 50 knots (57 mph) or greater are occurring. Installation access points are closed, with the

exception of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam for emergency department access only.

This is an extended period event. Guam can expect:

● Topical storm force conditions to persist across Guam as rain bands continue to train over the island bringing heavy showers and wind gusts up to 75 mph

through at least late morning but damaging winds of 39 mph or more

will continue well into the evening, after sunset. Such winds will continue to pose risk to public safety, infrastructure and power lines.

● Remain indoors until the Governor declares COR 4.

● Peak conditions with sustained winds of 40 to 60 mph and gusts of 70 to 85 mph decreasing through the morning, eventually falling to between

25 and 40 mph this afternoon.

● Stay out of the water; conditions are life-threatening. Dangerous sea conditions are expected to last until the end of the week.

Guam remains under both a tropical storm warning and a typhoon watch. As of 5 a.m., Typhoon Sinlaku was located 15.2N and 145.4E, 125 miles north-northeast of Guam.

This is a developing story. More updates to follow.