Heavy snow over large parts of China on Monday caused widespread
traffic disruptions and left at least 15 people dead in
weather-related accidents.
Five people died in the collapse of buildings under the weight of
the snow in Central China's Hubei Province, which had its heaviest
snow in 16 years, and another died in a building collapse in the
eastern province of Anhui, where it has been snowing since January
11.
The snow affected 7.8 million people in Hubei and caused losses
of 1.43 billion yuan (US$198 million), said Liu Hui, an official
with the provincial department of civil affairs on Monday.
Nine people were killed in snow-related traffic accidents in the
province. Hubei also saw the collapse of 11,305 houses and 481,300
hectares of crops damaged.
Half of the province's roads, totaling more than 1,000
kilometers, have been closed since Saturday. More than 8,800 of the
scheduled 9,500 long-distance coaches from Wuhan city have been
cancelled, affecting about 300,000 passengers, according to local
sources.
In the eastern Anhui Province, 2.84 million people were affected
and the direct economic loss stood at 400 million yuan.
Snow has forced all freeways in areas of Anhui north of the
Yangtze River to remain closed since 3:00 pm on Saturday, said
sources from the Anhui Provincial General Detachment of Traffic
Police.
Luogang Airport in Hefei, capital of Anhui, was forced to close
for 11 hours from late Saturday until early Sunday due to icy
runways, which caused 11 flights to be delayed.
The transmission line that carries electricity from the Three
Gorges Project to Shanghai was broken in the heavy snow, and more
than 450 repair staff have been working around the clock to repair
it.
In Shanghai, snow affected about 100 long-distance bus service
routes on Sunday and delayed more than 30 flights.
In western Tibet, emergency workers have rescued 131 people from
snowbound highways in the Ngari Prefecture since last Thursday, but
local officials fear others may be still trapped.
The southwestern Sichuan Province also saw its biggest snowfall
in a decade. The temperature was two to three degrees Celsius below
average for the time of year, which was very rare, said senior
Sichuan meteorologist Fan Xiaohong. The snow started on January 11
and would last another five days.
An airport in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region, was shut down on Sunday afternoon and Monday.
Disaster alleviation work is underway around China. Hubei has
allocated 17.2 million yuan in subsidies for people affected. The
department of civil affairs has sent 68,000 items of cotton-padded
clothes and quilts to affected areas, and ordered local authorities
to evacuate all those in at-risk buildings.
The Anhui government is also distributing money, clothes and
quilts to people affected. It has evacuated 4,087 people from their
residences.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said earlier on Monday that 5,750
people had been relocated due to the snow.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)
