BEJING: The death toll from super typhoon Rammasun, the strongest storm to hit southern China in over four decades, reached 17 today, official media reports said.
More than 3.3 million people were affected by Rammasun, which swept dozens of southern coastal cities in Guangdong and Hainan provinces as well as Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, local civil affairs authorities said today.
Eight people were confirmed dead in Hainan, where the typhoon made its first landfall on Friday afternoon, while nine others died in Guangxi, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
Power and water facilities, telecommunications networks, ports and roads were severely affected by the typhoon, making the rescue operations more difficult, local authorities reported.
In Hainan, the typhoon destroyed about 51,000 houses and 40,600 hectares of crops, causing economic losses worth over 4.7 billion yuan (USD 752.58 million), the provincial civil affairs authorities added.
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