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Residents of Saipan were without water and electricity and were rationing gasoline four days after Typhoon Soudelor hit the most populated island in the US territory of the Northern Marianas.
The typhoon, which is heading towards Taiwan and southeastern China, hit Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on Sunday, knocking out electricity on the island.
About 50,000 people live on the commonwealth's four populated islands, with most of them living on Saipan, which took the brunt of the storm.
"I haven't seen a storm like this in 20 years," said Gregorio Kilili Camcacho Sablan, the commonwealth's delegate to US Congress.
"Unfortunately, the resources we have are hardly enough to get things up."
The storm battered the island with wind speeds of up to 193km/h when it hit, the National Weather Service said.
The eye of the typhoon has been moving west, heading to Taiwan. It was about 1190km east-southeast of Taipei yesterday.
Sablan said he and others were expecting it to pass the Northern Marianas with 130 km/h winds.
But the typhoon was significantly more powerful and devastated the island, toppling homes and snapping wooden electricity poles, said Glen Hunter, who has lived on Saipan for 40 years.
"A lot of the damage is widespread," he said.
"Big swatches of places where houses were just devastated, side by side."
That there were no reports of deaths or serious injury "seems almost impossible," Hunter said.
More than 500 people on Saipan were in shelters, the Red Cross said.
Part of a disaster relief team arrived yesterday, said Krislyn Yano, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Hawaii.
The Hong Kong Observatory has downgraded Soudelor from a super typhoon to a "severe typhoon" as its wind speeds continue to drop, but warned it could pick up again today as it approaches Taiwan.
Cathay Pacific, which operates 127 Taiwan flights each week, said operations remain normal while it monitors Soudelor's approach.
In July, the approach of Typhoon Chan-hom prompted Taiwan to close its financial markets as well as schools and offices for one day.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


Battered islanders pick up the pieces after Typhoon Soudelor wreaks havoc on Saipan 

A damaged vehicle in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.Photo: AP

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