Super Typhoon Champi passes just south of Guam, knocking out power and water across the south of the island

The storm missed the island by ten miles, and ten miles was enough to matter and not enough to spare it. Typhoon Champi passed about 16 kilometers south of Merizo, Guam, at 4:26 in the morning local time on Sunday, October 18, with its small eyewall just offshore, which put the strongest winds over southern Guam. About three hours later the Joint Typhoon Warning Center upgraded it to a super typhoon.

The numbers behind that upgrade are severe. The warning center post analysis put the storm peak intensity at 269 kilometers per hour, about 167 miles per hour, at midnight UTC, before a second eyewall formed and dry air got into the core and weakened it to 222 kilometers per hour by midday UTC, as of October 18. The National Weather Service office in Guam rated it a super typhoon with sustained winds of 241 kilometers per hour, about 150 miles per hour, on Sunday morning. By evening the center was about 346 kilometers west of Naval Station Guam and the super typhoon designation was dropped.

On the ground, the south of the island took the hit. Guam authorities reported widespread power outages and disruptions to water services. Guam Memorial Hospital reported three storm related visits, including one minor injury. Most of Tumon hotel row kept its electricity. Damage assessments were still incomplete on Sunday, and officials gave no timetable for a full return to normal operations.

President Trump approved Governor Lou Leon Guerrero request for federal emergency assistance, putting the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a coordinating role for life safety, property protection and public health. Flights were cancelled and visitors were told to shelter indoors while the storm passed. Typhoon warnings were cancelled at 4:50 in the afternoon, and the governor declared the all clear, Condition of Readiness 4, at 6 in the evening. The weather service planned to survey the far south of the island on Monday. Champi is moving west, away from the Marianas, and what it left behind is a grid that bent, in the words of local reporting, without collapsing.