Typhoon Manuel is lashing the U.S.
territory of Guam
with powerful winds
and torrential rainfall right now.
The eye of the typhoon passed
just north of the Pacific Island.
That was earlier today.
But the eyewall itself,
the strongest part,
of course, of the storm
is still pelting
the entire island
with hurricane force winds.
Our Ivan Watson has more for you
the island of Guam is taking a beating.
America's westernmost territory.
Hammered by Typhoon Moi.
Possibly the most powerful storm system
to hit this Pacific island in decades.
This is an extremely
dangerous and life threatening situation.
The National Weather Service
reporting winds of 115
to 140 miles per hour,
apparently knocking out the agency's
wind sensors.
Those winds are generating
some massive sea
and we're seeing maximum
sea heights around 40 feet at the city.
And, boy, that is incredible.
In anticipation
of dangerous
winds and storm surges,
the Territory's Governor
ordered an evacuation of low
lying coastal areas.
She's instructing the population
to stay indoors.
Please,
I ask you to follow these instructions
for your safety and for your protection.
Stay home
until I declare a
condition of readiness for.
By mid-afternoon
on Wednesday, only 1000 of the Guam
Power Authority's
52,000 customers still had electricity.
This is incredible.
I don't think I've ever seen
so much lightning in a typhoon before.
The eyewall of Typhoon Moi lashed
the northern end of the island.
That's the location of Andersen
Air Force Base,
a sprawling military installation.
We filmed from a plane in Better Weather
back in 2017.
We've also passed over Andersen
Air Force Base,
where B-1 bombers have been flying out of
Guam.
Is home
to thousands
of American military
service personnel and their families.
The island's
total population
of more than 150,000 inhabitants
now facing a very tough night.
This is going to be kind of a long night.
It is going to be scary.
There is no electricity unless you have
a generator, partial generator
reassure your children
it's going to be a little bit scary.
As we go later into the night,
you can hear the sounds.
The winds are howling.
Things are breaking
and so just be together,
talk to each other.
And things will slow down
toward midnight
and continue into Thursday morning.
Ivan Watson, CNN.
That sounds it looks pretty scary.
Let's bring in CNN meteorologist
Chad Myers in Atlanta.
And Chad,
where exactly then is a typhoon right now
and what risk to the residents of
of Guam face in the coming hours?
Because that's critically
the overnight hours now.
Yeah, that was
that was something
and you can follow some of these pictures
that we we were showing, James Reynolds.
You can follow him on Twitter
if you want to see the things that
he's doing out there live.
But here's what's going on now.
It's the backside of Guam,
the backside,
the western slope here
that we didn't expect
to see so much damage.
That's getting it
because of where this storm went.
It went north of Guam.
Had it gone right through,
we would expect the winds
to be coming in this direction.
So everybody on the eastern side
of the island was preparing
Western portion said, okay,
well, no, we're okay.
Probably will be
the storm is going to
just kind of push us from the west.
Well, yes, it did.
It actually moved farther to the north
than any model expected.
And now it's actually growing in size,
not just here.
When it moved north of Guam,
there was
no I really
we could see it on radar
until the radar went out
because the power went out.
But now the eye is reemerging,
which means this storm is
really intensifying.
Now, the good news is
there are miles, kilometers
worth of land here.
No land of water
to the west of Guam for a while.
But there will be things
that could get in the way
as the winds were gusting to 240 k
p h, 220 right now
gusting to 270 and moving slowly,
only nine kilometers per hour,
which means these people
were feeling this wind for hours.
And hours and hours,
not just a passing storm
that kind of came and went.
The winds were just going
and going and going all night long.
And so was the rain.
Over a half
a meter of rainfall reported already
in some of these spots.
And it's still raining,
as we can tell by the radar.
We could have told by the radar
if there was power,
but we're kind of
watching the satellite, realizing
where the lightning still is.
So obviously still raining in some spots.
Flood warnings in effect,
still another 100 millimeters
of rainfall to go in many spots.
But here is where we are now.
Winds will start to die off
in the overnight hours.
And by tomorrow morning,
we'll start to see temperatures
still very warm with the humidity
and the storm still really intensifying.
Out here with very warm water out there.
I know
we talk about the Atlantic
hurricane season only starting in June,
but the season out here lasts
pretty much all year long
because the water is so warm.
But by tomorrow,
the winds are down to 70,
but not in the storm itself.
We're at two 50 here in 72 hours.
And notice
where this is going,
that little spit of land
that you see over there,
that's the Philippines.
This storm was not headed
that far south yesterday.
It was well to the north.
We have our eyes on that
in the coming days.
Isa, stay safe, everyone.
Very dangerous indeed.
Thanks, Chad. Appreciate it.