South China's Hainan Province has been working hard to get well prepared in case typhoon Damrey, the 18th typhoon of the year, might make landfall in the island province from its eastern coast on Sunday.

Different ports on the island province have all put up signs towarn people of the impending typhoon, said local sources.

By Friday, 7,091 boats and ships of the province, with 121,000 fishermen, have sailed back and got fastened in the nearest harbors on the coast.

The provincial government of Hainan convened an urgent national teleconference on typhoon control on Saturday morning, calling on Party and government officials at all levels and the broad masses of the people in the province to get ready for impending typhoon Damrey, do their best to safeguard the lives of the people and the safety of property and to limit the damages to the least extent.

A special working group consist of officials from the provincial bureaux of water affairs, work safety, civil affairs, agriculture, maritime affairs and fishery was formed after the teleconferencen and sent to seven key areas to give guidance in typhoon control efforts.

Local meteorological observatory said typhoon Damrey intensified into strong tropical storm early on Saturday, and its eye was later monitored at 20 degrees north latitude and 115.4 degrees east longitude, or in the South China Sea waters some 450 km away from the eastern coast of Hainan, packing up winds from moderate to whole gale in the affected areas.

The typhoon is moving westward at a speed of 15 km per hour.

The observatory predicted there would be storms and concentrated downpours, as well as strong winds on the whole island from Saturday night to Monday.

Source: Xinhua