By JOHN SEEWER, KATHY McCORMACK and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press
A super typhoon steadily battered a pair of remote U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean with ferocious winds and relentless rains, shredding tin roofs and forcing residents to take cover from flying tree limbs. Super Typhoon Sinlaku pounded the Northern Mariana Islands for hours before daybreak Wednesday, slowing just to inflict more damage across the islands of Tinian and Saipan, home to nearly 50,000 people. The National Weather Service says the tropical typhoon was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph when it made landfall on the islands. The weather service says tropical force winds and torrential rainfall also led to flash flooding on Guam, a U.S. territory to the south with several U.S. military installations and about 170,000 residents.
By DÁNICA COTO, JOHN MYERS JR. and EVENS SANON Associated Press
Tropical Storm Melissa is nearly stationary in the central Caribbean, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane. Catastrophic flooding and landslides are likely in southern Haiti in the coming days. U.S. forecasters said the storm's slow movement will mean days of exposure to heavy rain and strong winds, which will worsen flooding and other dangers. Melissa had 60 mph winds early Friday. It could strengthen into a hurricane Saturday and a major hurricane later in the weekend. Authorities were opening shelters and making other preparations in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Tropical Storm Raymond has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the third system now off the western coast of Mexico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Raymond is about 115 miles south-southeast of Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is traveling west-northwest at 14 mph. At the same time, Tropical Storm Priscilla remains off the western coast of Mexico and is bringing rain to the Baja California peninsula. The former tropical storm Octave also churned in the eastern Pacific near Mexico but was downgraded Thursday morning to a post-tropical cyclone and was expected to dissipate soon.
