Announcements were made for residents in southern coastal areas to evacuate, with an emergency shelter opening at Inalahan Middle School at 2 p.m. as Typhoon Champi rapidly intensified Saturday.
In a briefing late Saturday morning, Landon Aydlett of the National Weather Service said the storm, which was forecast to pass over or near the southern part of the island Sunday morning, would be stronger than Typhoon Mawar was for residents of the south.
“This is going to be a significant hit for us,” he said. “We're going to have a rough day tomorrow.”
He said severe tropical storm-force winds would be felt throughout the island, and they will exceed what Guam experienced during Typhoon Sinlaku in April or Bavi in July.
“Even if this passes over the southern coastal waters, that northern eyewall will pass over the southern villages of Guam, bringing those most intense wind conditions,” he said.
He advised residents to be in safe shelters by sundown.
"Make sure when the sun sets tonight that you are in a hardened shelter," he said. "Reinforced concrete walls. Reinforced concrete roof. If you're not in that, you need to be in a safe shelter, not a tent, canopy tarp, wood-and-tin shelters. These are not going to provide protection by any means with Typhoon Champi."
Emergency managers emphasized that ocean waters would be deadly.
Conditions were deteriorating along coastal waters by late morning.
“If you're along the windward coastal areas of southern eastern Guam, you need to make sure you're away from the coastal areas, away from the water, because we're going to see some surge - upwards of 5 to 7 feet of surge,” Aydlett said. “That's water above normal water levels, but those wind swells, those waves will keep pushing the water higher up onto normally dry ground. So we're going to see a lot of coastal impacts along the windward coasts.”
He said sea and surf conditions would begin to improve on Sunday night and into Monday.
“But again, stay out of the water, stay away from the coast, the surf, the reefs,” he said. “That's going to be dangerous and deadly out there through the day on Sunday.”
