Transport, power are top priority in China

Source: Xinhua | 01-30-2008 11:20

BEIJING, Jan. 30 -- Vast resources have been mobilized to combat the rare snow and sleet storms that have battered central, eastern and southern China since January 10.

At least 49 people have died because of the brutal weather, including 25 killed yesterday when a bus skidded off a slippery road in Zunyi, Guizhou province.

The top Party leadership has urged local authorities to make disaster relief the "most pressing task" and make "all-out efforts" to ensure a return to normalcy.

The call came after a Politburo meeting yesterday, chaired by President Hu Jintao, which studied the damage inflicted by icy rain and snowstorms and made plans for relief work.

Most parts of central and southern China are set to suffer more inclement weather in the next few days with some provinces facing snowstorms, and transport and energy supplies thrown out of kilter.

"The top priority is to ensure electricity supply and smooth communications and transport by every possible means," the Politburo statement said, urging local authorities to strive to increase coal output and ensure supply to power plants.

"The people's interests should be put first to ensure a happy Spring Festival," the statement said."

"Dealing with the current disaster is more complicated than floods, because freezing weather has restricted the mobility of relief forces and most of the affected areas are in mountainous areas," said Wang Zhenyao, director of the disaster-relief department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and armed police have been sent to the frontlines to help.

The pre-holiday traffic chaos continued to worsen yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands stranded at railway stations and on ice-blocked roads.

Following the power cuts in parts of Hunan, Guizhou and Jiangxi provinces experienced several blackouts yesterday, threatening local rail transport, the Ministry of Railways said yesterday.

The power supply network in Hunan is still under repair, and the number of railway stations without electricity rose to 30 by yesterday afternoon, the ministry said.

Large numbers of passengers were stuck at railway stations along the southern part of the Beijing-Guangzhou trunk line in Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong provinces, the ministry said.

It has directed 279 passenger trains on the paralyzed trunk line to take other routes, helping 550,000 passengers reach their destinations.

That included some 400,000 passengers who boarded 199 trains that left the Guangzhou station by yesterday morning.

The ministry has stopped selling tickets for trains that leave before Feb 5 on the Beijing-Guangzhou line.

After being closed for four days in heavy snow, the Changsha airport finally opened yesterday, with two aircraft having taken off by yesterday afternoon. At least 9,000 passengers were grounded there at one time.

About 34,000 travelers stranded on the Guangdong section of Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway for six days are also expected to go home before 6 pm today.

The National Meteorological Center forecast that snowfall would stop in a few days, but sleet and snow would continue in southern China.

Editor:Zhang Ning