With heavy snow snarling much of China for the past three weeks,
cutting power and disrupting transportation, people in many areas
have been living in what they call "dead cities".
"Without water to cook and electricity for heat, life has become
really inconvenient," said one freshman from Changsha University of
Science and Technology, who had just returned to his home in
Chenzhou, in southern Hunan. With the Spring Festival approaching,
the student said, he didn't sense any holiday atmosphere.
In Hunan's capital city of Changsha, many shops, including
several large supermarkets, were closed because of electricity
shortages. Conditions in the city were similar to those elsewhere
in weather-stricken areas. For example, at night, the city -- with
a population of 4.6 million -- was largely dark, except for lights
in a few hotels. Those hotels were full of families who had brought
electric heaters.
For those who were not lucky enough to secure a hotel room, coal
became a sought-after commodity.
Ms. Duan, who works at a construction site, was happy to be
someplace with a stock of coal. "With the coal, we could not only
get warmth, but cook as well," she said. She added that the price
of noodles had jumped from 1.5 yuan a kilogram to 2.5 yuan. With
the water supplies cut, Duan said that they had to boil snow for
water to drink.
Chenzhou is the epitome of cities in 19 provinces,
municipalities and autonomous regions hit by the worst snow in five
decades, which killed at least 60 people and forced nearly 1.76
million people to relocate, affected the lives of millions more and
caused losses of about 53.9 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S.
dollars).
From Jan. 25 to 31, a total of 5.8 million passengers were
stranded throughout the railway system and more than 8,000 cargo
trains were affected, according to the railways ministry.
Bad weather also forced 380 planes to be diverted and delayed
5,550 flights, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of
China (CAAC) said. However, airlines still carried 3.17 million
passengers from the nation's 52 major airports between Jan. 23 and
29, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, by flying larger
planes.
The Ministry of Finance on Thursday earmarked another 138
million yuan for disaster relief, lifting the total relief fund to
431 million yuan.
The State Council, or the cabinet, has established a command
center to coordinate contingency measures for coal, oil and power
supply, transportation and disaster relief in snow-hit areas.
On Friday, the Ministry of Railways started a 10-day emergency
coal shipping campaign, vowing to ensure a daily thermal coal
delivery of more than 40,000 cars during the campaign.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed 251,000
soldiers to battle the chaos caused by the unusually heavy snow
around the southern part of the country by 1 a.m. on Friday. More
than 100 PLA aircraft and helicopters were on standby.
Thanks to efforts by a range of emergency service workers,
traffic was beginning to return to normal.
The Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, cut off since last Saturday,
went back into operation.
"I got on the train," said a tearful 30-year-old Tan Caizhi, who
had been stranded in the Guangzhou railway station for three days.
"There were thousands of people crowded at the railway station, and
I was so afraid that disorder would break out. Fortunately, we have
police to keep order and doctors stationed there to provide
medicine," he said.
According to Guan Hongbin, a doctor with the No. 1 Hospital
affiliated with Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, said his
clinic received an average of 100 patients a day, most of whom had
a cold or fever.
On the Beijing-Zhuhai highway, where more than 7,000 stranded
vehicles backed up for 40 kilometers had begun to move at 9 p.m. on
Thursday, water, clothes and food worth nearly 1 million yuan were
given to riders.
"I have traveled through the southern Hubei section of the
highway many times, but this disaster was unprecedented," said Xin
Guocheng, a driver from northern Hebei Province. "I will remember
the help of the local people and the government for the rest of my
life."
Electricity was another priority, as the upcoming Spring
Festival would see a power-consumption peak. Hubei Province has
ordered enterprises to send their staff on vacation so as to reduce
electricity use.
Back in Chenzhou, where people like Duan were still waiting for
things to look up, more than 5,000 workers have been sent to repair
damaged power lines. Two of these workers were killed and two
others were seriously injured in the effort.
The cold was set to continue, according to the National
Meteorological Center, which forecast snow in Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi
and Zhejiang Provinces on Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2008)