Super Typhoon Champi Passes Within 10 Miles of Guam

A powerful storm named Super Typhoon Champi passed near Guam early Saturday, bringing powerful winds that the National Weather Service called “extremely dangerous” and “life-threatening.” Super Typhoon Champi came within 10 miles of the southernmost tip of the island as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, with winds exceeding 130 miles per hour. Just after it passed by the island, it reached Super Typhoon status, with sustained winds reaching 150 m.p.h. “We had a very near miss with this storm,” said David DeCou, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Guam. Champi intensified from a tropical storm to the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane in less than two days, as it barreled northwest across the Pacific Ocean, moving toward Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. “A period of rapid intensification was expected, but this outperformed what was expected,” said Paul Stanko, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Guam. The strongest winds hit southern Guam on Saturday. Mr. DeCou said that there were no sensors to record wind speeds in that area, but gusts likely reached well over 100 m.p.h. The Weather Service issued an extreme wind warning for this area through Sunday morning and said the winds would create a “particularly dangerous situation.” “Venturing outside can result in death from flying projectiles,” the agency said on Saturday. At the airport, in the northern part of the island, gusts reached 80 m.p.h. Mr. Stanko said early Saturday that power outages were already occurring, and the service warned of a possible island-wide outage that could last for days or weeks. Heavy rainfall possibly over six inches was also forecast for Saturday. The island was under a flash flood warning through Sunday morning. Winds and rain were also expected in the nearby islands of Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Marianas.