Twenty-five tourists from Shanghai were stranded in Washington DC Tuesday when the post-tropical storm Sandy hit the east coast of the US, according to the local tourism administration.

The group in Washington DC was the only Shanghai tour group traveling on the east coast of the US when the storm hit, according to the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration.

The storm had killed at least 18 people in the US as of Tuesday evening, the US National Hurricane Center reported.

The members of the tour group were all safely hunkered down in a hotel, said an employee surnamed Gao with Shanghai Spring International Travel Service, which organized the group.

The group was supposed to head to Los Angeles, California, and then return to Shanghai on November 6, but they now have to wait until they can get a flight to the west coast, Gao told the Global Times.

There were 14 local tour groups made up of 147 people traveling in the US Tuesday. Most of the other groups were traveling in cities on the west coast or Hawaii, though the administration only keeps tabs on local tourists traveling in groups and not individual travelers, according to the tourism administration.

Two US-bound flights departing from Shanghai were cancelled Tuesday due to the storm: United Airlines flight UA087 to Newark, New Jersey, and Delta Air Lines flight DL7003 to New York City.

United Airlines said in a news release Tuesday that it will extend the period it allows passengers to change their flights for free for affected customers.

The tourism administration hasn't halted tour groups to the US because of the storm.

The storm had been downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical storm before making landfall in southern New Jersey around 8 am Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm was heading northwest at a speed of 15 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour as of 5 pm.

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