Here is a good story from the Pacific Daily News on Guam's preparations.
Residents get ready
Typhoon to hit closest to Guam tonight
http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/200 ... 92851.html
By Therese P. Howe
For Pacific Sunday News
Better to be safe than sorry was the philosophy most residents were putting into action yesterday as they prepared for a possible hit from Typhoon Chaba.
The Office of Civil Defense placed Guam in Condition of Readiness 2 at 5 p.m. yesterday. Under that level, damaging winds from the typhoon could hit within 24 hours, said Erica Perez of the Joint Information Center of the Office of Civil Defense.
Typhoon Chaba is expected to make its closest approach to Guam today at 8 p.m. with winds gusting up to 100 mph after midnight tonight, according to National Weather Service officials.
As of 10 p.m. yesterday, Chaba, a name for a tropical flower, was located at 14.1 degrees north and 150.3 degrees east, or about 375 miles east of Guam. The storm system was moving west at 12 mph.
The typhoon had sustained winds of 80 mph and gusts of 100 mph, and winds were expected to intensify, NWS meteorologist Paul Stanko said. According to the forecast, Chaba's closest point of approach would be 183 miles northeast of Guam.
Residents who notice a smaller storm east of Guam needn't worry, Stanko said.
"Typhoon Chaba is getting big and beefy enough to squash that one like a bug," he said.
Those noticing the consistent westerly movement of the storm may be asking when Chaba would ever start moving north.
"That's the million-dollar question," said NWS meteorologist Carl McElroy. "All the forecast models turn it north. It's just a question of timing. If it delays its turn, it'll hit us."
McElroy said Chaba was expected to run into the winds of another storm that just passed the region, which should move Chaba north.
"But if it doesn't get into that path soon, we're gonna get up close and personal with this thing, especially Saipan," McElroy said. "It is scary. Folks really need to pay attention to the forecast."
Weather and Civil Defense officials urged families to review disaster preparation plans. McElroy added residents can expect a heavy amount of rain throughout today.
Residents didn't need the reminder. Canopies were being taken down and shutters were being put up around the island.
Mia Felipe, 34, stocked up on $30 worth of water and canned goods at Pay-Less and filled her car with gas in the morning. The afternoon was devoted to taking out typhoon shutters from storage, cleaning them of the red ants that had taken up residence on them, and putting them up at the Barrigada home she shares with her sister and cousins.
"It's better to be prepared than sorry. We've learned from past experience," Felipe said. "We're still hopeful it won't hit, but we just want to be ready."
Other residents who worked during the day had to prepare for the typhoon in the evening.
Tina Tainatongo and her boyfriend, Mark Jocson, both 29, faced a night of typhoon preparations after their jobs at Nissan in upper Tumon ended at 5 p.m.
"His job right after work is go fill up the gallons for drinking water and extra water for flushing the toilets just in case," said Tainatongo, a sales consultant. "My job is to go to the grocery store and get canned foods, batteries if we need. And we have a generator, so his job is also to get the gas prepared. Then he'll help my brother put up the shutters and take down the canopies and whatever is going to fly."
Despite all the gearing up in preparation, Tainatongo's biggest worry is the water situation.
"Just to get in line to get water, the hassle of having dirty clothes and not being able to flush the toilet and the dishes pile up," she said. "That's the part about the typhoons that I really don't like that all."
Agat residents, meanwhile, already are prepared for water outages since village taps slowed to a trickle since Wednesday.
Rains muddied the waters in Fena Lake, which feeds the Navy Water Treatment Plant, cutting the daily water production, according to Daily News files. Problems with the Navy's power system then forced the water treatment plant to drain reservoirs.
The combination of problems forced the Navy to lower its total water production, which also cut into the amount of water it pumps into the southern region's public water system.
Yesterday, residents in the lower elevations of Agat were getting a trickle out of their taps because the Navy had been providing water at a reduced flow of 500 gallons per minute, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Arwen Consaul. The typical rate is 8,000 gallons per minute, she said.
Yesterday morning, families were lining up their trucks filled with coolers, 55-gallon drums and other containers to hold water at the Agat community center.
While her 16-year-old son and her husband fished for i'e' along the shore next to the center, Gloria Teruel sat in the back of their pickup truck and washed three loads of laundry by hand.
"They didn't tell us beforehand so we couldn't prepare and fill up our buckets," said Teruel, a 50-year-old lead budget technician for the Navy. "And they don't say when is it coming. It's like we're in limbo."
That condition isn't likely to change, however, because the Navy is still having problems with its water treatment filters and because of the impending storm,Consaul said.
If the weather forecast is promising, then customers can expect water to be turned on, but still at a reduced flow, she said. That decision was expected to be made this morning, she said.
Kevin Vang
APCEDI Coordinator
http://www.afap.org/apcedi
http://www.afap.org/
http://www.birdquest.net/
. Hopefully Guam misses this one though.