Manila (AP) — Philippine officials began evacuating thousands of villagers, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban Monday as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the U.S. territory of Guam.

The typhoon is packing maximum sustained winds of 155 kpm (96 mph) and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph) but is forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan.

Although it’s expected to slow down considerably, authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as it blows past the northernmost province of Batanes from Tuesday to Wednesday. Disaster-preparedness officials said the typhoon’s course could change abruptly and there was no room for complacency.

“Even if the sun is up, the weather is so unpredictable nowadays and could change anytime so we should always stay on the side of safety,” Assistant Secretary Raffy Alejandro of the Office of Civil Defense told The Associated Press. “We’re talking here of potential threats to lives.”

Mawar tore through Guam last week as the strongest typhoon to hit the U.S. Pacific territory in over two decades, flipping cars, tearing off roofs and knocking down power.

“These typhoons, earthquakes and natural calamities have been a part of our lives,” Batanes Vice Gov. Ignacio Villa told the AP by telephone. “We cannot afford not to prepare because that would potentially mean the loss of lives and major damage.”

Army troops, police, firefighters and volunteer groups were standing by for search and rescue operations in northern provinces and more than a million food packs have been prepared for any contingency, officials said.

More than 4,800 people have been evacuated to emergency shelters in Cagayan, Batanes and other provinces, Alejandro said. He added that the number of the displaced was expected to rise given the precautionary evacuations that were underway Monday in flood- and landslide-prone regions.

Classes and office work, except those involved in disaster-preparedness, have been suspended in most of Cagayan and Batanes provinces, where occasional downpours and gusty wind were reported Sunday night. Flights to and from the provinces have been canceled and fishing and passenger vessels prohibited from sailing.

In at least one province, officials imposed a liquor ban.

Villa said the local government lent ropes to villagers living in high-risk communities to strengthen their houses as the typhoon approached.

About 20 typhoons and storms each year batter the Philippine archipelago, which also lies on seismic faults where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone.

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland, demolished about a million shanties and houses and displaced more than 5 million in one of the country’s poorest regions in the central Philippines.

All but 1,000 of the island’s 52,000 homes and businesses lost power, according to the Guam Power Authority, but government officials reported nothing unusual in hospital emergency rooms, and only moderate damage such as flooding, fallen debris and downed power lines.

“I am so glad we are safe. We have weathered this storm. The worst has gone by,” Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said in a video message.

Still, she warned people to stay home for their own safety until the government declared it was safe.

“It seems that roads are passable, but you should not be on the road,” Guerrero said after touring the island, a U.S. territory that is home to about 170,000 people, including about 10,000 U.S. military personnel.

Before landfall, she had compared the storm to 1962’s Typhoon Karen, which flattened much of the island.

The eye of Super Typhoon Mawar tracked just north of Guam early Thursday, moving northwest at a sluggish 8 mph, delivering rainfall of up to 2 inches (5 cm) per hour overnight, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Images posted on social media showed ominous clouds drifting over beaches, rains lashing buildings and winds bending palm trees.

Wind speeds placed the storm in Category 4, the second-strongest designation on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind scale, and just short of Category 5.

People in Guam take typhoons seriously and typically hunker down in reinforced concrete structures, said Landon Aydlett, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Guam.

After the storm passed, Guam’s Office of Civil Defense issued a bulletin warning people that the highest stage of alert remained in effect.

“In addition to the tropical storm force winds, hazardous surf and seas remain. Remain out of the water due to life-threatening conditions,” the bulletin said.

Hagatna (AP) — Typhoon Mawar aimed its fury at the tiny U.S. territory of Guam on Wednesday as residents with nowhere to go hunkered down to face the devastating winds and torrential rains from what was expected to be the worst storm to hit the Pacific island in decades.

The U.S. military sent away ships, residents stockpiled supplies and anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere ahead of the typhoon, which was forecast to arrive as a Category 4 storm with winds of 140 mph (225 kph) but could possibly strengthen to a Category 5, the most powerful. The last time a Category 5 directly hit Guam was 1962.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Guam said they were seeing “almost whiteout conditions” at their office and hearing low rumblings and shaking shutters and doors as the storm intensified Wednesday afternoon.

“Stay inside. Trees are coming down; power lines are coming down,” said Brandon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the service. “Everything is changing — it is too dangerous to be outside.”

Many communities on the 212-square-mile (549-square-kilometer) island had lost power by the afternoon and some to the south had lost water service. A flash flood warning was issued for the entire island as forecasters predicted as much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain in addition to a life-threatening storm surge of 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 2 meters).

Ahead of the storm, Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations. The highest point on the island is Mt. Lamlam in the southwest at 1,334 feet (406 meters). But much of the beachfront tourist district of Tamuning, where many resort hotels are located, is close to sea level.

In low-lying Agat along the southern coast, resident Reuel Drilon began preparing Friday and spent the weekend tying down patio furniture and trash containers. Nearly every home in the village, he said, has a mango tree — which officials warned could be ripped from the ground and become roadblocks and deadly flying projectiles.

“A lot of folks are keeping their eyes on trees,” he told The Associated Press before the storm hit. “Down south, we have a lot of coconut trees and mango trees.”

Guam is a crucial hub for U.S. forces in the Pacific, and the Department of Defense controls about a third of the island. Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, Joint Region Marianas commander, authorized the evacuation of defense personnel, dependents and employees in areas expected to be affected.

The military said it moved its ships out to sea as a standard precaution. It sent its aircraft off the island or placed them in protective hangars. Any personnel remaining on the island were sheltering in place. About 6,800 U.S. service members are assigned to Guam, according to the Pentagon.

With rain from the storm’s outer bands already falling over the island as of late Wednesday morning, the typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) with gusts peaking at 170 mph (274 kph), said Landon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Guam. Its center was about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of the island and was moving to the north-northwest.

The weather service warned of “considerable damage” from a “triple threat” of winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge of 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 2 meters), with dangerous surf of 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters). It said the storm could hit Wednesday afternoon in the southern part of Guam, which lies west of the International Date Line and is a day ahead of the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.

If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead weather service meteorologist in Guam. Mawar is a Malaysian word that means “rose,” he noted.

Shool buses picked up residents at island community centers and transported them to 11 elementary schools outfitted as shelters. Civic workers in various villages warned residents to secure loose objects in their yards and seek shelter immediately. Some spread the word by megaphone, while others turned to social media. Power flickered off and on as the rain and wind intensified, and officials said nearly 900 people were in shelters.

Leon Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate, saying, “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now.”

Guerrero said an emergency declaration approved by President Joe Biden will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.”

The storm was moving at 6 mph (10 kph) but had an eye 17 miles (27 kilometers) wide, meaning people at the typhoon’s center could see calm conditions for over three hours and conclude, far too soon, that the worst is over, Doll said. As the eye leaves, the winds could rise to 150 mph (241 kph) in minutes, so people should remain sheltered until the government gives the all-clear.

“Folks may say, ‘Hey it’s over, we could go outside and start cleaning up,’” Doll said. “That is totally wrong.

Joshua Paulino, a client manager at Xerox Guam, was sheltering at home in the central village of Chalan Pago with his wife, two sons and mother after the family closed the shutters and secured outdoor objects. He worried that the storm could dump rain on the island for a long time, since it was forecast to pass by gradually.

“This storm is moving very slowly so that is making me really uneasy,” Paulino said by text message.

And an ocean away in Los Angeles, Marichelle Tanag was fretting from afar after her parents, who are in their 70s and have survived many typhoons in their decades on the island. They boarded up windows, stocked up on a couple of weeks of food, prepared the generator and filled bathtubs with water. Their home in Tamuning, also in central Guam, is made of concrete, but she worried about it nevertheless.

“Will the house stand? … If not, will they be able to go to another place of safety if needed, as fast as possible, and not get in the way of any of the flying debris?” Tanag said by phone.

Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings. Some people in those areas are still in temporary shelters or tents after Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, Doll noted.

Honolulu (AP) — Authorities in Guam warned anyone not living in a fully concrete house to head to safety elsewhere and emergency shelters began to fill as residents braced for Typhoon Mawar, a powerful storm that could deliver the biggest hit in two decades to 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 Wednesday. She ordered the National Guard to help those in low-lying areas evacuate ahead of the storm as residents stocked up on jugs of water and generators.

“Current forecasts are not favorable to our island,” she said. “We are at the crosshairs of Typhoon Mawar. Take action now, stay calm, stay informed and stay safe.”

If Guam doesn’t take a direct hit, it will be very close, said Patrick Doll, the lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam.

The center of the Category 3 storm was about 195 miles (313.8 kilometers) southeast of Guam on Tuesday, and moving northwest at 9 to 10 mph (14.4 to 16 kph) toward Guam, according to the weather service.

It was expected to arrive as a 140 mph (225 kph) Category 4 typhoon, weather officials said. Winds could reach up to 150 mph (241 kph), Guerrero said in her video message.

The typhoon could cause “extensive damage,” Doll told The Associated Press.

The governor said she would place Guam essentially in a lockdown effective 1 p.m. Tuesday and those in low-lying areas needed to leave by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Rain from the storm’s outer bands was falling Tuesday..

A storm surge of 6 to 10 feet ( 1.82 to 3 meters) above the normal high tide was expected and could reach up to 15 feet (4.6 meters). Surf was expected to build sharply in the next day or two along south- and east-facing reefs, with dangerous surf of 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7.6 meters) Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, the weather service said.

At the island’s grocery and hardware stores Monday, people were leaving with shopping carts full of canned goods, cases of water and generators, the Pacific Daily News reported.

The Rev. Francis X. Hezel, a Jesuit priest and assistant pastor at Santa Barbara Church in Dededo, was trying to visit people at the hospital before it closed to visitors Tuesday.

Before hitting the road, he said he had trouble finding someone to help him put air in his tires because everyone was busy readying their homes to withstand the storm.

“I live in a rectory,” he said. “I’m just closing the windows hoping that the gusts don’t bash them in. Praying for the best, I guess.”

Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures to consider moving for safety. Many homes are made of wood and tin.

“The triple threat of cat 4 typhoon force winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge are all expected for Guam and Rota,” the weather service said in a Tuesday morning update.

Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings.

Some people in those areas are still in temporary shelters or tents after Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, Doll noted.

“Guam takes a Category 4 or 5 hit every five to seven years. Mother Nature has spared us as of late,” Doll said, adding that the last direct hit was in 2002. “So we are way overdue.”