About 50,000 residents live on the three Northern Mariana Islands, with Saipan serving as a major resort and tourism hub.

April typhoon activity in the western Pacific is unusual, as the region’s peak season typically runs from June to November.

Emergency measures include flood and high-wind warnings issued by the U.S. Coast Guard to support responders and residents.

A super typhoon named Sinlaku is bearing down on remote U.S. Pacific islands, with landfall expected in the Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday and the potential for Guam to feel tropical-storm–strength winds starting Monday.

Sinlaku is being monitored by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam and is part of the western Pacific basin where storms reaching 150 mph wind speeds are classified as super typhoons, a category with more than 300 instances since 1947.

President Trump approved emergency disaster declarations for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands to enable additional emergency services and federal assistance.

A slight northward shift in Sinlaku’s track reduces the odds of a direct hit on Guam, with Saipan and Tinian expected to bear the brunt of the storm’s most severe conditions.

The region has a storied history of powerful typhoons, and lessons from Typhoon Mawar in 2023 have led to heightened precautions for personnel in Guam and nearby areas.

In the South Pacific, Tropical Cyclone Vaianu formed in early April, affected Fiji without landfall, and later became extratropical, while New Zealand experienced strong winds, outages, and an 11-meter ocean swell.