NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-tisoy-kammuri.html

Tropical Cyclone Maha has taken a sharp turn over the Arabian Sea and is now poised to brush India’s west coast on November 7, 2019. By landfall, forecasters expect the storm to have weakened from its extremely severe peak on November 4, which was when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image. At the time, sustained winds measured 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour—the equivalent of a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

Considered in isolation, there’s nothing particularly unusual about Maha. However, in the context of the season and the basin, it is the latest in a series of strong tropical cyclones in an area that typically doesn’t see many. In fact, the North Indian basin is usually the least active in the Northern Hemisphere.

Situation: (Advisory #10 as of 5:00 a.m. EDT) • 100 miles E of Saipan, moving NW at 10 mph

• Maximum sustained winds 110 mph (CAT 2)

• Expected to intensify further over the next few days

• Typhoon-force winds extend 45 miles; tropical-storm-force winds extend 150 miles

• Typhoon Warning & Flash Flood Watch in effect for Tinian & Saipan; Tropical Storm Warning in for Agrihan, Pagan, and Alamagan

Lifeline Impacts: All lifelines remain Green (Region IX SLB as of 11:00 p.m. EDT)

Food, Water, Sheltering:

• Shelters: Saipan: 8 open with 312 occupants; Tinian: 1 open with 16 occupants; Rota: all closed (Region IX Incident Report Update #7)

Health & Medical: Saipan: Hospital has two weeks supply of water and generator fuel; medical supplies for two months

Communications:

• Tinian: 1 cell tower on generator power (due to Hagibis)

• Saipan: 2 cell towers taken offline as a precaution

Transportation:

• Port condition Zulu (closed) for Tinian, Saipan and Rota;X-Ray (open with restrictions) for Guam

• Airports: Saipan is closed; all other airports remain open
State / Local Response:

• Emergency Declaration FEMA-3425-EM-CNMI approved on October 20, 2019 • CNMI EOC at Full Activation (day shift) o Typhoon Condition I for Saipan and Tinian o Typhoon Condition III for Agrihan, Alamagan and Pagan

FEMA / Federal Response:

• FEMA Region IX at Steady State

o Region IX IMAT-2 staged in Guam pending deployment to CNMI

o 2 LNOs deployed to Guam; 2 deployed to CNMI

o MCC and select ESFs activated

• NWC at Steady State

• 1 ISB/SMT team deployed to Guam

• MERS staged in Guam pending deployment to CNMI