HONOLULU — Guam’s governor urged residents to stay home and warned the island could take a direct hit from Typhoon Mawar as the storm strengthened on a path toward the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the weather service said could hit the southern part of Guam around midday local time on Wednesday.
“We may take a direct hit,” Patrick Doll, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam, told The Associated Press.
“If we don’t take a direct hit, it’s going to be very close.”
The center of the storm was about 260 miles (420 kilometers) southeast of Guam, and moving at 7 mph (11 kph) toward Guam, Doll said.
It was expected to arrive as a 140 mph (225 kph) Category 4 typhoon, weather officials said, possibly delivering the biggest hit in two decades.
The governor said she would place Guam essentially in a lockdown effective 1 p.m. Tuesday.