page_title: Typhoon Yutu
section_title: Response efforts
hierarchical_section_title: Typhoon Yutu / Aftermath / Response efforts
caption_attribution_description: English: Damage to a communication tower on Tinian after Typhoon Yutu
context_page_description: Typhoon Yutu, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Rosita, was an extremely powerful tropical cyclone that caused catastrophic destruction on the islands of Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, and later impacted the Philippines. It is the strongest typhoon ever recorded to impact the Mariana Islands, and is tied as the second-strongest tropical cyclone to strike the United States and its unincorporated territories by both wind speed and barometric pressure. Yutu was also the most powerful tropical cyclone worldwide in 2018. The fortieth tropical depression, twenty-sixth named storm, twelfth typhoon, and the seventh super typhoon of the 2018 Pacific typhoon season, Yutu originated from a low-pressure area that formed in the western Pacific Ocean on October 15. The disturbance organized into a tropical depression on the same day, as ocean sea-surface heat content increased. Shortly after becoming a tropical depression, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center assigned the system the identifier 31W. The system continued to strengthen, becoming a tropical storm several hours later, with the Japan Meteorological Agency naming the system Yutu.
context_section_description: FEMA scheduled aircraft to deliver relief supplies by October 26. In accordance with changes implemented after Hurricane Maria in 2017, the agency established specific task forces to handle smaller scale facets of the recovery: transportation, communications, food and water, and energy and fuel.
  Emergency shelters quickly filled to capacity on both islands by October 25. The same day the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency for the affected areas and deployed 50 health personnel. The USCGC Sequoia and USCGC Kiska ported in Guam sailed for Saipan and Tinian, respectively, with relief supplies.
  Direct Relief worked with Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation and with other health facilities damaged by the storm to coordinate medical aid shipments to the Northern Mariana Islands. A shipment of 40,000 liters of drinking water along with other essential items was delivered in late October.
  On October 26, Matson, Inc. provided $125,000 in funds and deployed its vessel Mana loaded with bottled water and ice.
  On October 27, South Korea began airlifting approximately 1,000 stranded tourists from Saipan.
caption: Communication tower damaged by typhoon winds
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