Debris litters the ground as policemen hold passengers out-
side Guagnzhou railway station.
Freezing weather has again swept through southern China,
leaving 180,000 people stranded and causing power outages,
just as the region was recovering from the last cold snap,
state press said Monday
(AFP/File/Liu Jin)
180,000 stranded in southern China as cold weather returns: govt
Mon Feb 18, 2008
BEIJING (AFP) - Icy temperatures have swept through south China, stranding 180,000 people and
leading to widespread power cuts just as the area was recovering from the worst weather in 50
years, the government said Monday.
The latest cold snap has taken a severe toll in usually temperate Yunnan province, which has been
struck by heavy snowfalls since Thursday, a government official from the provincial disaster relief
office told AFP.
Twelve people have died there, state Xinhua news agency reported, and four remained missing as
of Saturday.
In the province's second largest city, Qujing, 80 percent of the two million residents did not have
electricity due to the most recent cold snap and the severe weather that first hit China in early
January, the China Daily said.
In the period from January 19 until Saturday, a total of 178,000 people in transit had been left
stranded across the province, Xinhua reported.
The snowfalls over the past few days have cut off 14,000 kilometres (8,700 miles) of roads in
Yunnan, leaving large numbers of travellers marooned, the newspaper said, citing provincial trans-
port authorities.
In Qujing, six highways have been closed while 42 bus routes have been cancelled, according to
the China Daily.
"As the bad weather continues, the rescue work is becoming much harder," said the official from
the provincial disaster relief office, referring to helping stranded passengers, clearing roads and
getting power back up.
Usually warm Yunnan was one of the areas hard hit by the dismal weather in January and early
February which pummelled China's south, southwest and east in the worst winter weather seen
in five decades.
The three weeks of severe weather left millions stranded, as the nation's power and transport
networks were unable to cope with the blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.
Authorities have said they were not prepared for the weather, which struck as 200 million people,
mostly rural migrant workers, were preparing to go home for the Lunar New Year -- believed to
be one of the world's largest annual migrations.
China had to mobilise nearly 1.96 million soldiers and reservists to deal with the crisis that left
at least 107 people dead and caused more than 15 billion dollars in economic losses, according
to official figures.
Destroyed crops, weakened industrial production and the disruption of coal and food supplies
were also expected to have a short but potentially nasty impact on the booming Chinese economy.
"China is digging out of January's heavy snowfall that disrupted holiday travel and created shortages
of food and energy," said Tim Condon, a senior economist at ING Barings in Singapore.
"Officials have downplayed the potential for a significant impact on growth but have acknowledged
the likelihood of an inflation spike."
Economists widely expected prices to exceed seven percent in January, well beyond November's
decade-high level of 6.9 percent.
