Residents of the Northern Mariana Islands braced themselves yesterday as Typhoon Melor churned across the Western Pacific.
Three islands in the US commonwealth — Saipan, Tinian and Agrihan — were under a typhoon warning, while a typhoon watch for Rota was downgraded to a tropical storm warning, the National Weather Service said. A tropical storm warning for the neighboring US territory of Guam was canceled.
Most businesses had shut down by yesterday morning and Saipan residents who don’t live in concrete homes have moved to typhoon shelters, said Charles Reyes, Northern Marianas Governor Benigno Fitial’s press secretary.
The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 209kph, was expected to make its closest approach to Saipan last night, the weather service said.
As of late yesterday morning, Melor was located 225km northeast of Saipan, moving to the northwest at 19kph. Typhoon-force winds of at least 119kph extended up to 112km from the center of the storm.
Saipan, Tinian and Agrihan were forecast to take the brunt of the storm, with the National Weather Service saying damaging winds could knock down trees, triggering power outages.
Rainfall of up to 15.2cm and waves as high as 5m were possible, forecasters said.
Some airlines canceled flights in the Northern Marianas as residents stocked up on emergency supplies as the typhoon headed their way.
The government has opened six shelters on Saipan and one on Tinian. Most government and private sector employees were told to leave work on Friday and many went to board up and stock their homes.
Guam villagers living in tin-and-wood homes had been urged to seek refuge in storm shelters.
Residents have been rescued from collapsing homes during previous typhoons, so they were asked to relocate to shelters ahead of this storm, Yigo Mayor Robert Lizama said. Hundreds have relocated to 12 public schools designated as storm shelters, he said.
The US Coast Guard advised mariners not to leave shore until the storm passes.
Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency prepared food, water and beds as Typhoon Melor closed in. The agency had more than 90,000 meals, 2,500 cots, 3,800 blankets and 85 power generators waiting in the Northern Mariana islands and Guam.
An additional 110,000 meals and more supplies are ready to be shipped from Hawaii to wherever they’re needed. Those supplies are also available to help the recovery from the tsunami that hit American Samoa earlier last week.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS