the Super tornado In the Pacific, it struck the Northern Mariana Islands, overturning cars, toppling power poles, and ripping off tin roofs. So far, there have been no reports of deaths.
The authorities had only begun to assess the damage caused Super Typhoon Sinlakuwhich struck the islands for the first time on Tuesday night, local time, and continued with a barrage of strong winds and heavy rain for hours on Wednesday.
Power was cut off and many roads became impassable across Saipan, a US territory that is the largest of the Mariana Islands and is home to about 43,000 people, according to local officials.
The storm also hit Guam, another US territory and the site of several US military bases, with strong tropical winds.
The hurricane, the strongest tropical cyclone on Earth this year, was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph) when it made landfall on the islands, the National Weather Service said.
The monster storm was still packing 125 mph (200 kph) winds late Wednesday night as it approached northward from the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota, the weather service said. Sinlaco is expected to begin bending toward the sparsely populated volcanic islands in the far northern Marianas.
The weather was still very windy and rainy nearly 24 hours after the typhoon hit the islands, but much better than the night before, said Jaden Sanchez, spokesman for the Saipan Mayor’s Office.
He added that initial reports included frequent flooding, uprooted trees, and downed power lines, but there were no deaths.
Images from Saipan showed residential areas strewn with debris and mangled trees. The winds caused the metal stands at a sports stadium to crumble.
One resident, Dong Min Lee, filmed a video of a car sitting on top of two other cars in the parking lot of his apartment building. The wind tore off part of his balcony railing.
The American Red Cross and its partners are sheltering more than 1,000 residents across Guam and the Northern Marian Islands, agency spokeswoman Stephanie Fox said.
___
Associated Press writers Jennifer Cinco Kelleher and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Gabriela Aoun Angera in San Diego contributed to this report.