Heavy snow has killed 24 people in China since Jan. 10, the
Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Monday.
More than 77.86 million people had been affected by the snow in
14 provinces, including Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan by 2 p.m.
Monday, according to the ministry.
Among the deaths, 10 were killed in collapses of homes weighed
down by the snow and another 10 died after falling on slippery
roads. Two people drowned and two were hit by falling trees laden
with heavy snow.
The snow has affected more than 4.2 million hectares of
farmland, led to the collapse of about 107,000 houses and damaged
399,000 other homes.
Direct economic losses are estimated at 22.09 billion yuan
(about 3 billion U.S. dollars).
According to reports from local civil affairs departments, snow
is still falling in some southern provinces, such as Hunan and
Hubei, while some areas in Guizhou, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces and
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are getting icy rain.
On Monday, flights in at least 10 cities including Wuhan,
Nanjing, Changsha and Changzhou were halted temporarily due to bad
weather.
Four expressways in Shanghai have been closed indefinitely by
snow.
By 4 p.m. Sunday, the snow had affected 5.97 million citizens
and 3.93 million mu (some 648,500 ha.) of farmland in Anhui
Province, made 24,000 people homeless, collapsed 12,800 houses and
damaged 49,600 others, causing a direct economic loss of 1.6
billion yuan.
Governments at all levels have extended logistic and financial
support.
Working around the clock, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched
five times the VI emergency disaster response from Jan. 21 to
27.
On Jan. 22, the ministry also provided financial aid of 1.75
billion yuan, jointly with the Ministry of Finance, for hard-hit
areas, of which 14 million yuan was given to Hubei and Hunan
provinces, which have been seriously affected.
In Hunan Province, civil affairs departments handed out more
than 32.4 million yuan, as well as 78,000 quilts, 620,000 items of
clothing, 780 tons of rice and 10 tons of cooking oil to the needy
people.
(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2008)