Typhoon Damrey slammed into south China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces yesterday afternoon, wreaking havoc in the region.

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 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)