Holiday travelers to Guam were stranded in airports after Typhoon Paka hit Guam on the night of December 16 with record gusts up to 236 mph, according to the December 18 Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
The storm destroyed at least 3,000 homes, displacing about 9,000 people into emergency shelters, according to an e-mailed report from Mark C. Goniwiecha, associate professor of library science at the University of Guam. At the height of the storm all power, cable, and water services were lost and had not yet been fully restored by December 26.
Goniwiecha wrote that the university's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library was open two days after the storm as staff attempted to bring the automation system back online. Although water from lobby doors and the roof had saturated library carpeting, library windows had remained secure behind typhoon shutters.
Posted December 29, 1997.