The official death toll in the Hainan and Guangxi regions was raised to 10 on Tuesday as Typhoon Haiyan affected over 1.2 million people in south western China.
More than one thousand students and teachers at a middle school in Guigang, Guangxi were trapped by floodwaters of up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) on Tuesday morning, they were later rescued by firefighters.
Over 900 houses were flattened by the typhoon, 8,500 others were damaged and over 25,000 hectares of crops were destroyed. Direct economic losses from the storm are estimated to be around 4.4 billion yuan ($734 million).
In Dongxing, two 100 ton ships were swept into a bridge on Monday afternoon. One vessel was towed away but the other remained stuck under the bridge as of Tuesday evening:
"The damage to the bridge is visible but there are no potential safety risks, and repairs will be made before next Friday," an official told reporters.
Three crewmembers of a cargo vessel caught in the storm as it passed over Sanya, Hainan on Sunday are still missing. Four other sailors were confirmed dead on Tuesday.
In the Philippines, the official death toll from the storm has been lowered to between 2,000 and 2,500. President Benigno Aquino said earlier estimates of around 10,000 deaths were caused by "emotional drama". Around 660,000 people in the Philippines have been displaced by the storm and may have no access to food, medicine, or drinking water according to the UN.
[Image via Xinhua]
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