A storm that could prove to be the strongest of the year is bearing down on Taiwan.

Super Typhoon Soudelor is a category 5 storm, the strongest level for a storm.  The storm has been reported to have sustained winds of 160 m.p.h. and gusts of 180 m.p.h.

NASA has been tracking the storm and says that it is tracking toward northern Taiwan and mainland China.  They predict the storm will weaken before making the landfall sometime Thursday on Taiwan.

“There is growing concern that Taiwan and the southern Ryukyu Islands will have to contend with Soudelor as early as Thursday night or Friday with impacts lasting into early next week across eastern China,” AccuWeather meteorologist Eric Leister said to the USA Today.

The storm already has caused major damage on the island of Saipan north of Guam.  The storm crossed the island as a Category 2 storm on Sunday night.  U.S. officials have been rushing relief supplies to Guam to take to Saipan.

Thousands of residents of Saipan are in shelters.