Bebinca moves away from Marianas, but strong winds and heavy showers to persist

The worst is over as Tropical Storm Bebinca now steadily makes its way away from the Marianas and downgrades to a tropical depression. The governor declared Condition of Readiness 4 at 2pm today with tropical storm warnings now canceled. Students are back to school tomorrow. Still, that doesn't mean clear and sunny skies just yet.

The impacts of the low-end Bebinca were felt overnight. Strong winds shook trees and heavy rain flooded roadways.

"Some of our rain gauges picked up between 3 and 4 inches," explained Landon Aydlett, lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tiyan. "That was with the heaviest showers falling over southern and central Guam early this morning."

The island woke up to find peak conditions have passed by Wednesday morning. The governor’s communications director Krystal Paco-San Agustin says there were no major damages reported, noting, "Our teams from the DPW crews were already positioned at the sites that we knew there would be flooding in flood prone areas. So they were able to support flood mitigation and make those roads passable this morning, especially as COR3 means GovGuam reports to work.":

Bebinca is now steadily moving away from Guam and deeper into the Philippine Sea, tracking towards Okinawa and Japan's southwest islands. 

But Aydlett says it’s not all-clear just yet, saying, "We are watching this monsoon funnel in from Palau, across the Yap State and right up into this Tropical Storm Bebinca.  That’s going to be the trend for the next several days as Bebinca remains kind of in our vicinity, but to the west."

He says expect windy and wet conditions to persist throughout the rest of the week as the monsoon surge hits.  

A high surf advisory, wind advisory, small craft advisory and flood watch remain in effect. "It's not a good time to be out in the water and not a good time to be out in a boat, because the seas and the winds will be elevated much through the week," Aydlett said.

In the meantime, with last year's Typhoon Mawar is still fresh in the community’s minds, as Paco-San Agustin reflected on how that impacted preparations with this storm.  "I think the people of Guam were much better prepared this time around. They dusted off their radios and knew where they were, they had the batteries and they were heading to the gas station to fill up their tanks, washing that laundry and filling up water gallons to prepare to bunker down if needed for several days at a time," she said.

Up in Yigo at Andersen Air Force Base, the commander also noted that their gas temporarily ran out as military families gassed up in preparation. He notes no fuel will be available at least for a day or two as they wait for the next delivery.

And in the next village over in Dededo, 11 families also preparing for the worst, seeking shelter at Maria Ulloa Elementary School. "That breakdown is 28 adults, 24 children and that totaled 52 people representing 11 families," said Paco-San Agustin. "We thank them for seeking shelter, taking caution and heeding the warnings of Condition of Readiness 3 with tropical storm damaging winds we were expecting overnight."

With September coincidently being National Preparedness Month, she says it was great practice for the community to prepare for disasters.