Since yesterday, Sanba has waxed and waned in intensity a bit. At one point, its top winds climbed to an extraordinary 178 mph, the equivalent of powerful category 5 hurricane. Since then, some of the thunderstorms surrounding the storm’s eye have diminished and the maximum winds have dropped some.
The storm continues on a track to pass very close to Okinawa Sunday and South Korea Monday. Fortunately, some weakening is expected due to an “increasingly hostile upper level environment” says the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).
Link: Okinawa weather radar
The Stars and Stripes Pacific Storm Tracker blog - which provides typhoon updates for Okinawa - is sounding the alarm. It urged residents to get ready, likening the storm to super typhoon Bart, which battered the island in 1999:
Assuming the worst and Okinawa gets pummeled by Sanba’s worst winds, we could be in for a very lengthy recovery period, several hours at least. At those wind speeds, thousands on and off base could be without power, some without water, whole trees, power lines, power poles and stoplights could be down.
. . .
Time to get your commissary, PX, ATM and gasoline stand on. Enough water, non-perishable food, pet food for your furry friends, diapers and sanitizer for the little ones and cash to last three days, at least, and fill the tank with gasoline.
. . .
Sanba is NO JOKE. This could be the next Bart; ask island longtimers what THAT was like. Prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare, in no particular order.
Bart killed two people on Okinawa and produced $5 million in damage on Kadena Air Base.
NBCNews says 80,000 U.S. citizens reside on Okinawa, 30,000 of which are military personnel. The island’s total population is 1.3 million people.
