Typhoon Damrey slammed into south China's Guangdong
and Hainan
provinces yesterday afternoon, wreaking havoc in the region.
As at 4 AM this morning, at least two people, both women, were
reported dead.
Experts believe Damrey is the strongest tropical cyclone to
affect south China in 10 years, according to a Xinhua report
yesterday.
Winds near the typhoon's eye were up to 180 kilometers per hour
yesterday afternoon, as it moved westward to the eastern shores of
Hainan.
At least one fisherman is missing after three fishing boats
capsized in waters near Nan'o Island in Guangdong Province. 16
others have been rescued, sources from Guangdong Provincial Marine
Rescue Center said.
"The wind and the waves are really too strong to continue
fishing in the sea," Xu Weisheng, a fisherman in Xuwen County, said
yesterday.
The cities of Zhanjiang, Maoming and Yangjiang in the western
part of Guangdong Province were hardest struck by the typhoon.
According to an official from the Guangdong Provincial
Anti-Flooding Headquarters yesterday, a total of 121,285 residents
living along the coast had to be evacuated.
Many sections of coastal dikes, water conservancy facilities and
reservoirs have been destroyed or damaged so far, while large areas
of crop land have been flooded.
In addition to flooding, the raging typhoon also felled trees
and advertising billboards in downtown areas, bringing traffic to a
standstill.
The ferry service across the Qiongzhou Straits was suspended
from 11 AM on Saturday, leaving many vehicles and passengers
stranded on the Leizhou Peninsula and in Haikou, capital of Hainan
Province.
In Hainan, secondary warnings were raised and the emergency
response mechanism for disastrous weather kicked into operation
yesterday morning. Damrey swirled towards the island province at a
speed of 15-20 kilometers per hour.
Damrey is the 18th typhoon to strike the Chinese coast this
year.
(China Daily September 26, 2005)
