Photos and firsthand accounts from the Northern Mariana Islands are spreading online after Super Typhoon Sinlaku tore through the U.S. territory, flattening homes, flooding neighborhoods, and leaving thousands without power or running water, Yale Climate Connections reported.
Sinlaku slammed Saipan and Tinian in April with winds of at least 145 mph, about 15 to 25 inches of rainfall, and surge flooding of roughly five to eight feet in some areas, the National Weather Service in Guam reported.
While the storm weakened slightly before landfall, residents said that offered little relief on the ground as roofs were ripped away, cars overturned, and floodwaters poured into homes, per Yale Climate Connections.
Maria Theresa Dizon, whose family sheltered in their car as their wood-and-tin house collapsed, recounted the unrelenting experience. "I was just looking at the road, and everything was just falling down, and I was just afraid we would be closed in, and we were," she said, per Yale Climate Connections. "It didn't seem to end."
Across social media, similar photos and videos have shown schools torn apart, trees snapped in half, and entire communities underwater in muddy floodwaters.
The storm is drawing attention not just because of the scale of the destruction, but because it struck a place many Americans rarely hear about. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is one of the United States' territories, and its residents are U.S. citizens.
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Sinlaku's destruction is a stark reminder that increasingly severe extreme weather can put lives and livelihoods, including your own, at risk.
Powerful storms can destroy homes, cut off electricity and clean water, disrupt medical care, close schools, and wipe out income for families already facing limited resources.
The impacts can ripple through public health, community safety, and local economies long after the storm has passed.
Residents and advocates have also raised concerns about whether federal disaster aid will be enough, especially as communities face repeated rebuilding cycles in a warming world that can intensify storms and flooding.
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Even amid the devastation, residents have centered on mutual aid and survival.
"We lost everything, but the most important thing is we didn't lose each other," student Chelsy Reyes said after fleeing her apartment through waist-deep water with her family and dogs, per Yale Climate Connections.
Dizon said community support has been one of the few bright spots. "It's so beautiful and heartwarming that people would do that even if they're in the midst of their recovery," she remarked.
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