Provinces in central and northwest China on Wednesday reported
more losses from heavy snow, while southern provinces reported
signs of recovery from the disaster.
The heavy snow affected 407,800 people in the central Henan
Province from Jan. 11 to 29, costing an estimated 246 million yuan
(34.2 million U.S. dollars), according to the provincial civil
affairs department.
A total of 687 houses collapsed under the weight of snow and
204,200 hectares of crops were damaged. Authorities have so far
evacuated 2,725 people from unsafe houses.
In northwestern Shaanxi Province, 756,500 people have been
affected, including 1,200 who were ill or injured in snow-related
accidents and 182,300 people who face drinking water shortages.
More than 6,400 domestic animals and poultry died in the cold,
while 340 houses collapsed. Shaanxi's losses from the snow stood at
187 million yuan, according to the provincial department of civil
affairs.
The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been
falling in east, central and south China for more than a fortnight.
It has caused deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, highway
closures and crop destruction.
More than 77.86 million people had been affected by the snow in
14 provinces, including Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan, by 2:00
p.m. on Monday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Meanwhile, a spokesman from General Administration of Civil
Aviation of China said on Tuesday that all the airports that had
been forced to close due to snow had been reopened, alleviating the
pressure on national transport services.
The southern part of Beijing-Zhuhai expressway, a north-south
trunk road, is expected to reopen to traffic on Wednesday after
workers removed ice from road surfaces, according to sources from
the Ministry of Public Security.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)