Super Typhoon Sinlaku — the strongest storm on Earth so far this year — made landfall on the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific early Wednesday, unleashing sustained winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph), torrential rainfall and widespread flooding across the islands of Saipan and Tinian, home to nearly 50,000 people. The slow-moving storm, which formed on April 9 and had recorded peak sustained winds of 173 mph (278 kph) earlier in the week, crawled across the islands for hours before and after daybreak, prolonging the destruction.

Residents described scenes of extraordinary violence. Glen Hunter, a longtime Saipan resident who has weathered numerous typhoons, said the storm felt like the strongest he had ever experienced, with at least three tin roofs flying past his yard. "I'm guessing anything that was made of wood and tin did not survive this," he said, adding that rain seeped into every corner of his concrete home. Saipan's mayor, Ramon "RB" Camacho, watched a glass office door bend under the force of the wind as trees were uprooted and wooden structures collapsed around the capital. "It's hitting us hard," he said. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service warned that many residents would "wake up to a different island."

The Northern Mariana Islands are a U.S. commonwealth in the western Pacific, roughly midway between Hawaii and the Philippines. The region is known locally as "Typhoon Alley" and sits in one of the world's most active storm corridors. Saipan, the largest island and home to the territory's resort and tourism industry, was still recovering from 2018's Super Typhoon Yutu — one of the strongest typhoons ever to strike U.S. soil — when the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a further blow to its economy. The island also holds deep historical significance as the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War in the Pacific.

To the south, Guam — a U.S. territory of about 170,000 residents and a critical hub for American military forces in the Pacific — was spared a direct hit but still faced tropical storm conditions, flash flooding and gusts of up to 65 mph (105 kph). Authorities warned residents to stay out of the water, with dangerous sea conditions expected to persist through Thursday. Before reaching the Marianas, Sinlaku caused significant damage to the outer islands and atolls of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, a scattered island nation in the central Pacific.

President Donald Trump approved emergency disaster declarations for both Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands ahead of the storm, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deploying nearly 100 staff and coordinating support across multiple agencies. Meteorologists noted that while powerful typhoons are common in the western Pacific during the summer-to-autumn peak season, a storm of Sinlaku's intensity appearing in April is unusual. Super typhoons — defined as tropical cyclones with sustained winds of at least 150 mph — are the Pacific equivalent of Category 4 or 5 Atlantic hurricanes, and more than 300 have been recorded over the past 80 years.