For one memorable typhoon, I taped my windows and then went to the squadron where my crew was scheduled to take a plane and fly off the island. For many typhoons I was already off-island (after I taped my windows the first time, I left them taped). We flew to Cubi Pt in the Philippines and after hitting Guam the typhoon track pointed at the PI; we got back in the plane and returned to Guam.

Squadron hangar was filled with general aviation acft that didn't have the range to leave -- they were fine. I was fine, apartment was fine (way above sea level), car was wet but started (gas tank filled before I left). A couple days later everything was back to normal. This was repeated many times during my tour in WestPac.

I actually stayed on island once for a large typhoon. The acft that could fly went off-island, full crews, mission ready. We had two acft in maintenance that could not fly and being it was a Navy squadron, we shoehorned a lot of small acft into the hangar under the wings of the larger acft. The hangar was full.

The only homes that I cared about at the time -- besides my apartment, which I didn't really care about -- were built of concrete block and had roofing material that wouldn't blow off. I have no idea what those homes were rated at, but they were easily cat 4, probably cat 5.

During one typhoon when I left the island, one of the guys who lived on base borrowed my car. He tracked the storm path, and put my car and his on the leeward side of his house. During eye passage he moved both cars to the other side. Not a scratch, car was waiting for me at the squadron when I got back. It was actually fun in a twisted way, but hey, they paid me too