Damrey, the 18th typhoon this year,claimed 16 lives in south China's Hainan Province after it slammed into this island province early Monday morning.

Damrey tortured Hainan for more than 10 hours, bringing strong winds and driving rainstorms to the province.

Vice Provincial Governor Wu Changyuan said the tropical storm flattened more than 20,000 houses and damaged over 380 kilometers of highways. Typhoon Damrey also damaged 704,000 hectares of crops and caused great losses of aquatic products and rubber plantations in the province, Wu said.

Total economic loss caused is estimated to be approximately 10 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars).

Typhoon Damrey landed to the north of Wanning City in eastern part of Hainan province at 4:00am on Monday.

The tropical storm, with a wind speed of 55 meters per second at the center, dwarfed all those that had ravaged Hainan since 1960, except for Typhoon No. 7314, which hit the province on September 13, 1973, said Cai Qinbo, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Meteorological Station.

Source: Xinhua