美国国家公共电台 NPR--A typhoon just lashed Guam. What does federal relief look like for a U.S. territory?

A typhoon just lashed¹ Guam. What does federal relief look like for a U.S. territory?

Transcript²

Typhoon Mawar lashed Guam as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday local time, unleashing³ strong winds, heavy rains and widespread power outages in what forecasters are calling the strongest tropical cyclone⁴ to hit the U.S. island territory in decades.

The storm clipped northern Guam and is moving away from the island as of Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Its maximum sustained winds remain at 140 mph and are expected to grow as it slowly makes its way northwest.

"Mawar is forecast to intensify⁵ slowly over the next few days, possibly becoming a Super Typhoon over the Philippine Sea well west of the Marianas," the NWS says.

Forecasters had warned of a "triple threat" with powerful winds, torrential rain and "life-threatening storm surge," and said it could be the strongest storm to hit the island in 60 years.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero remembers experiencing Typhoon Karen — the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit Guam, with winds up to 175 miles per hour — in 1962.

"The whole island was really flattened⁶ by that typhoon, so to me that's the most scary," she told Morning Edition on Wednesday. "This one, as governor ... what's making me much more anxious is the safety and the protection of our people with these storms, because we know that we can't leave 'cause we're in the storm for about 12 hours."

It's too dark and dangerous to begin damage assessments⁸

Guam remains⁹ under flash flood and extreme wind warnings, and it may be some time until the full extent of the damage is known.

Guerrero said she will have her first damage assessment⁷ as soon as the winds start tapering¹⁰ down, but already knows of damage to houses and at least one rescue mission in which eight people were taken to a shelter.

"It was pretty scary going into a Category 4 to almost a Super Typhoon, but our people are very resilient," Guerrero added.

What's clear is that most of the island is in the dark. Guam Power Authority said in an afternoon update that almost all of its circuits were without power, and that the island-wide power system was serving only about 1,000 of its approximately 52,000 customers.

"I don't know that anybody still has power," says Dana Williams, who is in Guam covering the storm for the Pacific Daily News.

Williams told Morning Edition on Wednesday that the island — which covers an area of some 210 square miles — was seeing heavy rain, coastal¹¹ flooding, high seas, downed trees and internet outages.

Forecasters had been warning that anyone who didn't shelter in a reinforced concrete structure risked serious injury or death, she added. (Building codes have required all homes be made of concrete since 2002, the Associated Press notes.) Fortunately, Williams said, people living in Guam take these precautions seriously.

"This is not like Florida, where you can drive inland 10 miles, or even drive to Georgia," she explained. "I mean, the flights shut down yesterday. We're here and ... we've got to follow directions, and stay in our homes and go to places with shelter and get away from the water and stay off the roads. So most people do that."

Federal help is already on the way

Residents had been preparing for days, the AP reports, filling up gas tanks and gathering¹² important documents.

Federal officials had also acted quickly — the U.S. military sent ships away from Guam as a precaution, while President Biden approved an emergency declaration on Tuesday authorizing¹³ the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to respond to the disaster.

FEMA Associate Administrator¹⁴ Anne Bink told NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday that the agency had already pre-staged over 100 staff members — including medical professionals and power restoration experts — as well as relief supplies, with more than a million liters of water and 700,000 meals ready at a distribution center in Guam.

That positions FEMA to help with damage assessment and recovery as quickly as possible, Bink says. She says Guam's relationship to the federal government — since it's a territory and not a state — doesn't factor into the relief efforts, though its location in the far Pacific does pose some logistical challenges.

"That's why we have a distribution center there. And that's why a regional administrator meets with ... island leadership every year to make sure that ... efforts made to prepare for disasters and be resilient against them are shared," she explains. "In fact, Guam has mostly concrete infrastructure¹⁵, including concrete power poles, and that can go a long way in the face of a storm of this magnitude."

Guerrero says she's grateful to Biden and FEMA for their help, and agrees that Guam's status doesn't change anything when it comes to relief. She says the agency's response is comparable to that for other weather emergencies, like hurricanes, in the continental¹⁶ U.S.

"If anything, I think that we get more support quickly because of our isolated¹⁷ area, because we don't have the help of, say, other states bringing other resources to us," she adds.

That process likely won't start until sunrise at the earliest. Forecasters tell the AP and the New York Times that storm conditions are expected to linger in Guam until Thursday morning local time.

1 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 unleashing   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Company logos: making people's life better by unleashing Cummins power. 公司理念：以康明斯动力建设更美好的生活！ 来自互联网
• Sooner or later the dam will burst, unleashing catastrophic destruction. 否则堤坝将崩溃，酿成灾难。 来自互联网

4 cyclone   

n.旋风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• An exceptionally violent cyclone hit the town last night.昨晚异常猛烈的旋风吹袭了那个小镇。
• The cyclone brought misery to thousands of people.旋风给成千上万的人带来苦难。

5 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

6 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 tapering   

adj.尖端细的

参考例句：

• Interest in the scandal seems to be tapering off. 人们对那件丑闻的兴趣似乎越来越小了。
• Nonproductive expenditures keep tapering down. 非生产性开支一直在下降。

11 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

12 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

13 authorizing   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Letters of Marque: Take letters from a warning friendly power authorizing privateering. 私掠许可证：从某一个国家获得合法抢劫的证书。
• Formal phavee completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phavee. 阶段的正式完成不包括核准随后的阶段。

14 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

15 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

16 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

17 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。