A resident cleans up snow around vehicles in Nanjing, capial of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Jan. 28, 2008. By 8:00 on Monday about 36 centimeters of snowfall hit the city, breaking a record since 1961. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Jan. 29 -- Unremitting harsh weather across large parts of the nation has pushed up the human and economic toll as traffic snarls continued ahead of the major holiday.

    Snowfall, the worst in five decades in many places, has affected 77.86 million people in 14 provinces in northern, central, eastern and southern China by 2 pm yesterday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

Passengers crowd at the waiting hall of the Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Jan. 28, 2008. About 50,000 passengers were stranded at the Nanjing Railway Station due to the delays of trains caused by heavy snowstorm here. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    At least 24 people were killed in accidents over two weeks due to snow, sleet and freezing cold, it said, adding that direct economic losses have totaled 22.09 billion yuan ($3.06 billion).

    The extreme weather has forced the evacuation of 827,000 people to safer places, damaged 4.22 million hectares of crops, toppled 107,000 houses and damaged 399,000 homes.

    In hardest-hit Hunan, 29.15 million people have been affected, including 10 who died. The direct economic loss has exceeded 10.7 billion yuan ($1.48 billion), accounting for nearly half of the country's total.

    Many highways, railways and airports were paralyzed, especially in the east.

    The bad weather since Jan 12 has disrupted travel plans of tens of millions heading home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, starting on Feb 7 this year.