Typhoon Maysak causes havoc in FSM

Transcript

Supertyphoon Maysak has battered small atolls in the Federated States of Micronesia overnight, before hitting the main island of Yap state this morning.

Weather observers say the eye of the storm directly hit Fais and Ulithi atolls, tearing homes from their platforms and destroying most of their infrastructure and crops.

The typhoon had earlier hit Chuuk state, where five casualties were reported.

Alex Perrottet reports with the latest.

The command post in Yap lost contact with most of the islets in the Ulithi lagoon overnight, but did speak to Mogmog islanders while they were in the eye of the storm. Yap's Disaster Co-ordination Officer, Raymond Igechep, says houses were blown away in Fais, and he hopes there was no loss of life.

RAYMOND IGECHEP: They've seen houses blown off their platforms and stuff like that, the storm went very close to them and in fact in Ulithi, they went through the eye. They reported in later during the night that they experienced calmer weather and I advised them not to venture outside because that's the eye of the storm.

Raymond Igechep says Yap is experiencing very strong winds, and earlier today, heard tin flying around outside as he spoke to us.

RAYMOND IGECHEP:  I have a feeling that we won't get up to ...160 [miles per hour] but ... a tin roof flying around outside... so, yeah, from my assistant out here who is by the window, he is figuring out that the damages sustained is a bit more bad than what we went through with Typhoon Hagupit.

Winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour were forecast but a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in Guam, Mike Middlebrooke, says Yap has been spared the worst.

MIKE MIDDLEBROOKE: It's just tropical storm force winds, so they have escaped the really bad winds, associated with the storm. But the outer islands of Ulithi and Fais, probably really got hit hard. They appeared to have got pretty close to the maximum winds of the storm.

Mr Igechep says he hopes to get a small plane out to the atolls soon to assess the damage, but immediate relief may depend on the state of the airstrips and whether the plane can land. The director of the National Emergency Management Office, Andrew Yatilman, indicated the FSM would need international assistance in the form of food, water and other supplies.

ANDREW YALITMAN: There will be needs of affected residents, either water, food supplies or whatever, and those are the things that we will be needing assistance with. And as we have done in the past, we always look to regional as well as international communities for help.

A Managing Partner of Ulithi Adventure Lodge, John Terry, says he hasn't yet heard from the atoll and is also waiting on radio reports.