The New York Times-20080129-Snowstorms Cripple China- Leaving at Least 24 Dead

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Snowstorms Cripple China, Leaving at Least 24 Dead

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Severe snowstorms over broad swaths of eastern and central China have wreaked havoc on traffic throughout the country, creating gigantic passenger backups, spawning accidents and leaving at least 24 people dead, according to state news reports.

In many areas, where snow has continued falling for several days, the accumulation has been described as the heaviest in as many as five decades. The impact of the severe weather was complicated by the timing of the storms, which arrived just before the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, when Chinese return to their family homes by the hundreds of millions.

On Monday, the government announced a severe weather warning for the days ahead, as forecasts suggested that the snowfall would continue in many areas, including Shanghai, which is unaccustomed to severe winter weather.

Due to the rain, snow and frost, plus increased winter use of coal and electricity and the peak travel season, the job of ensuring coal, electricity and oil supplies and adequate transportation has become quite severe, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a statement issued late Sunday.

More heavy snow is expected, Mr. Wen warned. All government departments must prepare for this increasingly grim situation and urgently take action.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimates the direct economic cost of the weather so far to be $3.2 billion and the number of people affected to be 78 million, including 827,000 emergency evacuees.

The country's transportation problems have been deepened by power brownouts in about half of the 31 provinces. Officials said Monday that the supply of coal for electricity had dropped to 21 million tons, less than half the normal levels at this time of year. As a result, 17 provinces were rationing power by Monday.

The coal supply problems were themselves brought on by the heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain, which caused delays in distribution of the fuel by rail and truck in many regions. China is heavily dependent on domestically produced coal for power.

In Guangzhou, the booming southern industrial city, authorities said they expected as many as 600,000 train passengers to be stranded there by Monday. The police were being deployed around the city's central railroad station as a precaution to keep order.

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province, home to millions of migrant laborers from faraway parts of the country lured by the prospect of jobs in assembly plants and other factories. State television showed scenes of would-be travelers milling about the train station, many of them migrants, and warned that food and sanitation facilities were inadequate.

A power failure on Saturday night in Hunan Province was blamed for many of the rail delays, stranding 136 electric trains, scores serving the north-south Beijing-Guangzhou route.

According to Xinhua, the government news agency, about 100 diesel locomotives were sent to help restore the stranded trains to service. Railroad authorities also said that large quantities of rice and meat, as well as 20,000 boxes of instant noodles, had been rushed to the paralyzed trains to feed passengers.

To cope with the crisis, authorities in Guangzhou have ordered a temporary halt to the sale of train tickets and urged migrants from other provinces to spend the Spring Festival in Guangdong Province. At the earliest, normal train service is not expected to resume for three to five days.

Air travel in the country has also been affected, with at least 19 major airports closed Monday and flight schedules severely disrupted at dozens of other airports because of the snowfall. About 10,000 passengers were stranded at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou after 55 flights were canceled.

For the stranded passengers, there are few alternatives. Long-distance bus travel has also been severely hampered by icy roads and overwhelmed by the huge numbers of passengers.

For safety reasons, Jiangxi Province has halted all provincial bus service. In Jiangsu Province road networks are reportedly all but paralyzed by the heavy snowfall, while in Anhui Province, authorities have closed all public highways as a safety precaution.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Train passengers in Guangzhou, China. Officials say 78 million have been affected by the snow. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS)