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Mayor’s office scrambles to prepare for Man-Yi
The Saipan Mayor’s Office has been scrambling since yesterday to prepare the southern area of Saipan for a tropical storm that’s projected to head for the south of Guam today.
Saipan Mayor David Apatang told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they are working as hard to finish what they can in the southern area of Saipan as it bore most of the brunt of Super Typhoon Yutu.
“We are really hustling up, trying to concentrate on all the roofing tins and all that [waste],” Apatang said.
Yesterday around noon, his teams were concentrating on finishing the As Gonno area first.
“We have been moving tins since [Tuesday]” to recycling centers,” he said. “We are doing that as fast as we could because of the storm that is within the [Marianas] area.
Saipan Mayor’s Office director of field operations Joann Aquino noted that “we want to get that area cleared so that there is more room and also [in preparation] for the upcoming storm].”
As of 9am yesterday, Tropical Depression Man-Yi has been upgraded to a tropical storm. The U.S. National Weather Service in Guam noted that it is still expected to pass between Guam and Yap today and is projecting impacts extending well away from the center.
As of 9am yesterday, Ma-Yi had 50mph maximum sustained winds that are projected to strengthen while its current movement toward the northwest is at 23mph, which is fast for a storm.
“Twenty-three miles per hour is quite fast so do not let the satellite image fool you into thinking the storm is several days away. Given this fast movement, we are recommending that any outdoor storm preparations on Guam be completed today in case we do receive damaging winds by mid-morning [Thursday],” the agency warned yesterday.
A Guam media outlet noted that Man-Yi is expected to develop into a category 3 typhoon tonight with winds up to 120mph around its eyewall.
