Typhoon-Wracked Guam Declared Disaster

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 09, 2002

Typhoon-Wracked Guam Declared Disaster

A day after Guam was raked by a severe typhoon with wind gusts estimated at more than 180 mph, President Bush Monday declared the U.S. territory a federal disaster area.

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A day after Guam was raked by a severe typhoon with wind gusts estimated at more than 180 mph, President Bush Monday declared the U.S. territory a federal disaster area.

"The president's swift response provides the resources to help meet immediate emergency needs as we begin the process for determining further recovery requirements," Joe M. Allbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement issued in Washington.

No deaths were reported, but the entire island was without electricity, and water and sewer systems aren't expected to be fully operational for several weeks, Gov. Carl Gutierrez said Monday.

Typhoon Pongsona hit Guam on Sunday, covering the islands for hours. The sustained wind speed estimated at 150 mph around the eye of the storm gave Pongsona "supertyphoon" status. The storm blasted some spots with gusts up to 184 mph, officials said.

Extensive structural damage was reported across the island, but it will be some time before the full extent is known, officials said.

Some walls collapsed at Guam Memorial Hospital, the island's only civilian hospital, forcing the closure of the pediatrics ward and the intensive care, respiratory and medical telemetry units, hospital administrator David Shimizu said.

Public schools, some of which were turned into shelters to house more than 2,000, people remained closed.

The governor called on National Guard troops to clear roadways and help fire personnel tend to stranded residents, said Joe Javellana, the Civil Defense Agency's acting administrator.

Although most phone serve was knocked out by the storm, there were some calls reporting injuries, he said.

Barrigada resident Jackie Cabreras said her brother's house lost its roof and his mother-in-law's house also lost part of the roof.

A wind speed of 117 mph was clocked before the National Weather Service's wind sensor failed, along with its radar.

The storm also left more than 300 people homeless on Saipan and Rota in the neighboring Northern Mariana Islands, while damaging crops on Rota and Tinian, said officials in the U.S. commonwealth. No major injuries were reported.

Near midday Monday, the storm was located 195 miles north-northwest of Guam and 165 miles west-northwest of Saipan, moving away from the islands to the north-northwest at 13 miles an hour, said Air Force Capt. Robert Leejoice of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu.

Guam is located west of the international date line, about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.

The storm's eye crossed the northern end of Guam, but the entire island was hit by at least part of the storms' eye wall, which contains the strongest wind.

Source: Agencies

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