LOS ANGELES - Super typhoon Mawar hit Guam with strong winds with a speed of over 140 miles per hour (about 225 kilometers per hour) and heavy rains, causing floods and knocking out power on the island.
"The fierce winds and rain reportedly created white-out conditions around the island, and residents were reporting flooding in their homes overnight," the Guam-based Pacific Daily News reported Thursday.
"It is a frightening experience that hasn't been felt for over two decades," Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero wrote on her Facebook.
According to the Weather Channel, nearly all of Guam was in the dark after the Mawar's center stayed just off the northernmost point of the island late Wednesday night.
It further said that a typhoon or hurricane doesn't have to make landfall over an area to have significant impacts; in Mawar's case, it passed close enough for its eyewall, containing its highest winds and heaviest rain, to lash the island.
No casualties have been reported, and the island remains under a typhoon advisory. - XINHUA