2 dead, 5 missing as ship lost in typhoon in Hainan

SANYA - Rescuers in the southern island province of Hainan found two bodies on Monday suspected of being sailors from a cargo ship missing in the South China Sea since Sunday.

Five crew of the Guangxi-registered ship remain unaccounted for after the ship's mooring rope broke at 3:22 p.m. Sunday amid typhoon Haiyan, and the storm drove the vessel away from Sanya in Hainan, according to the local maritime search and rescue center.

Ships, speed boats and helicopters were mobilized to join the search, but the rescue effort was futile while the typhoon raged.

The national observatory issued a rainstorm alert on Monday for the  southern provinces as rain and tidal waves caused at least seven deaths in the region.

As of early Monday evening, the typhoon had brought economic losses of close to  5 billion yuan (about 810 million U.S. dollars) in Hainan, especially in the agricultural, fishing and forestry sectors, said Chen Wu, spokesman for the Hainan Provincial Flood, Drought and Typhoon Prevention Department.

Haiyan has destroyed over 3,600 houses and damaged about 122,000 hectares of farmland in the province.

In neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, gales and rainstorms cut the power supply to over 158,000 households.

Over 300 teams have been sent on emergency rescues.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rains to Guangxi and the provinces of Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guizhou on Monday and Tuesday.