A young boy tucks in to a hot bun from a PLA
field kitchen on the northern Guangdong section of the
Beijing-Zhuhai highway on Tuesday. The Guangzhou Military Command
dispatched 40 mobile kitchens and 200 personnel to provide hot food
for people stranded on the road.
Dozens of camouflaged mobile kitchens, engulfed in clouds of
steam, have been weaving through the congested Shaoguan section of
the main highway in Guangdong Province for the past two days.
The mission: To provide free, hot food for thousands of people
stranded on the snow-laden road.
On Monday, about 40 field kitchens and trucks set off from the
Guangzhou Military Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
carrying more than 200 soldiers and 30 tons of rice and flour. The
troops were dispatched immediately after their headquarters got
word to help the local government deal with the heavy snow "by all
means necessary", an officer with the division told China
Daily.
"I was shocked by how desperate people were here," Li Xudong,
director of the division's political department, said.
"I saw a woman with frostbitten lips crying. She was starving
but couldn't afford the 80 yuan ($11) being charged by peddlers for
a bowl of noodles."
The field kitchens include three staple-food vehicles able to
churn out buns for 900 people every hour, and 27 trucks that can
provide 150 people an hour with three dishes and a bowl of soup, Li
said.
The kitchens are working around-the-clock, he said.
By yesterday afternoon, the food convoys had provided meals for
about 11,000 people, Li said. An estimated 20,000 stranded
travelers will have been given at least one hot meal by the end of
today.
The cost of the food will be covered by the local government's
disaster relief budget, Li said.
"When we showed up, I could see many people felt like they had
taken a step closer to their homes," he said.
The division will deploy a further 1,000 soldiers today to
de-ice the highway, Li said.
About 500 km to the north, a reserve division of the Guangzhou
Military Command is also battling ice in Xiangtan, a severely
snow-hit region in Hunan Province.
As of yesterday afternoon, more than 5,000 soldiers had been
sent to help people trapped in the area.
More than 400 people have received help, dozens of whom required
medical care and were taken to hospital, Chu Tianqing, an officer
in charge of publicity with the division, told China
Daily.
The troops have also de-iced about 170 km of highways and
recovered nearly 4,000 m of collapsed power cables.
As well as the Guangzhou Military Command, which operates in
South China, troops across the country have been joining forces to
battle the effects of the fierce weather conditions.
As of yesterday, 158,000 soldiers and police personnel, plus
303,000 paramilitaries, had joined the relief effort, the Xinhua
News Agency said.
The General Staff Headquarters of the PLA said it has suspended
leave for some troops to ensure there is sufficient manpower.
(China Daily January 31, 2008)
