Updated Oct. 25

A super typhoon that slammed the Northern Mariana Islands this week has left communities devastated, with more than 100 homes destroyed and emergency workers struggling to help displaced families.

By Friday morning local time, Super Typhoon Yutu, which meteorologists said could be the strongest storm to have struck the United States this year, had swung away from inhabited territory into the Philippine Sea, Paul Stanko, a senior meteorologist with the Guam Weather Forecast Office, said in an interview early Friday morning.

The Northern Mariana Islands, a United States commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Guam, include Saipan, Tinian and Rota. The commonwealth, which is 14 hours ahead of the East Coast, is home to more than 52,000 people, a vast majority of whom live in Saipan.

The eye of the storm passed directly over Tinian around 2 a.m. local time on Thursday. Wind speeds reaching 180 m.p.h. or higher made the storm the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. A typhoon warning was no longer in effect for Tinian and Saipan late on Thursday, according to a statement by emergency authorities. But Mr. Stanko said surf up to 20 feet high continued to pound coastal areas.