Northern Mariana Islands Super Typhoon Yutu crumbles homes, kills 1
Associated Press
The strongest storm to hit any part of the United States this year crumbled concrete houses, smashed cars and killed at least one person in the Northern Mariana Islands, shocking residents and officials used to riding out monster storms in the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
A day after Super Typhoon Yutu slammed into the territory home to 50,000 people, residents today picked through destruction ranging from collapsed houses – including some built to withstand typhoon winds – to snapped utility poles blocking waterlogged roads.
They braced for months without power or running water.
Maximum sustained winds of 180 mph were recorded around the eye of the storm, which passed over the islands of Tinian and Saipan early Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
A 44-year-old woman taking shelter in an abandoned building died when it collapsed in the storm, the governor’s office Facebook page said.
Officials toured villages in Saipan, the most populated island, and saw new cars crushed under a collapsed garage, the ground ripped clean of vegetation and some people injured by spraying glass and other debris.
But residents “were stoic and still smiling and they were just thankful to be alive,” said Edwin Propst, a member of the territory’s House of Representatives.
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, the islands’ delegate to Congress, said most of the structures in the southern part of Saipan lost their roofs and many, including a high school, were “completely destroyed.”
“This damage is just horrendous, it’s going to take months and months for us to recover,” he said by phone.