UNITED STATES - A "super typhoon" with the force of a category-five hurricane tore through the US Pacific territories of Northern Marianas and Guam on Monday, with authorities saying they had received reports of "major" damage on the small island of Rota.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said that the "entirety" of Rota was in the eye of Super Typhoon Bavi, with winds of up to 290 kilometers per hour before moving "ever so slowly away" westwards.
The group of islands - several thousand kilometers west of the mainland United States - was by midday still being buffeted by fierce winds and driving rain that left residents holed up indoors.
When the storm first hit early Monday, the NWS urged Rota's roughly 1,500 residents on X to "treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to an interior room or shelter NOW!"
Local authorities on Rota -- the southernmost part of the Northern Marianas, less than 80 km north of Guam -- said they had received reports of "major damages", but with communications difficult the extent was unclear.
"We are hanging in there. We are experiencing heavy winds and flooding here... Some people are already reporting major damages," the Rota Municipal Operations Center's public information officer Lou Rosario said.
Previously, the NWS had warned that a direct hit on Rota would make most of the island "uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer" with nearly all trees snapped and power outages for "weeks to possibly months".
"Super Typhoon Bavi is leaving the area," he said. "Gradually, conditions are going to be improving."
Authorities on Guam had said the island could see 20 to 30 centimeters of precipitation, resulting in potential flash flooding.
The NWS said that winds of 50-80 mph and gusts of 100 mph were expected to last through late afternoon.
Edwin Santa Theresa, a 56-year-old health clinic worker on Tinian, said that residents were "prepared" for the storm.
"I think our main problem will be fuel because the supply is limited," he told AFP.
Rowell Mariano, 61, in Saipan, the main island of the Northern Marianas, also said that the April storm was worse for him.
"(Super Typhoon) Sinlaku was stronger because the center of the storm passed directly over Saipan," he said.
'It hurts'
Several hundred people were holed up at the Guam Plaza Hotel as the windows shook violently and rain leaked into rooms and stairwells.
Around 70 percent of people staying in the hotel - which in April spent $800,000 on a backup generator - were locals who had moved in while the storm passes.
El Niño
The World Meteorological Organization warned on Friday that El Niño, which typically occurs every two to seven years and lasts nine to 12 months, has already begun in the tropical Pacific and is likely to be strong.
The natural climate phenomenon warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
"Our big concern for this being an El Niño year is that it's going to be a lot busier than we've seen in the last five or six years," said Aydlett of the NWS.