Super Typhoon Bavi Approaches Guam, Residents Urged to Take Shelter.

Bavi, a massive cyclone approaching the Mariana Islands east of the Philippines, was forecast to strike Rota early Monday morning local time, National Weather Service meteorologist Edwin Montvila said.

The cyclone is forecast to be a Category 5 super typhoon with winds that could reach 180 miles per hour and gusts of 215 miles per hour, Montvila said. Super Typhoon Bavi was forecast to roar westward over the area early Monday with maximum sustained winds of up to 280 kilometres per hour (173 miles per hour) and gusts of 333 km/h, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

In addition to Rota, typhoon warnings were in effect for Guam, Tinian and Saipan, while tropical storm warnings and watches were in place for other islands in the area. "They are currently already encountering catastrophic wind," Montvila said of Rota, a territory of fewer than 2,000 people northeast of Guam, adding that an extreme wind warning was in effect for the island.

Bavi posed an "imminent danger to life," Montvila said, with the weather service telling residents across the islands to immediately move to interior rooms where they were sheltering and stay away from windows.

Howling winds and lashing rains battered Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands late Sunday, hours before the projected arrival of a "super typhoon" with force equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane over the U. S. Pacific territories.

A cyclone becomes a super typhoon when it has maximum sustained winds of 150 mph or stronger. The storm comes months after Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the strongest tropical cyclone this year, battered islands in the region in April, bringing ferocious winds and relentless rain.

Bavi was moving at a relatively fast pace Monday morning, which gave officials hope that it would pass quickly, Montvila said.