Shanghai, China – Typhoon Damrey slammed into southern China’s resort island of Hainan on Monday, killing at least nine people, collapsing houses and sweeping away rice, rubber and banana crops.
Packing winds of up to 125 mph, Damrey made landfall north of Hainan’s Wanning City before dawn. It was the island’s strongest typhoon since 1973.
The storm, whose name means “elephant” in Cambodian, scoured the island’s southern portion before heading out to sea toward Vietnam to the west. More than 200,000 people were being evacuated along the coast ahead of its expected arrival today, the Chinese news agency Xinhua said, citing Vietnamese officials.
Nine people in five cities were confirmed dead, Xinhua reported.
While still a tropical storm in the Philippines last week, Damrey triggered rain that killed at least 18 people.
