Special Report: China's war on snow havoc
SHANGHAI, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's transportation system, which has been paralyzed by the worst snowy weather in half a century, glimpsed an encouraging sign on Sunday with the reports of less cancelled flights and more resumed trains and buses.
There was a notable drop in the number of flights being cancelled on Sunday in east China, according to local sources.
An official from East China Branch of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said there were still plenty of flight delays, but cancellations on Sunday were fewer than those on Saturday.
Between 2 p.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday, for instance, among 2,338 scheduled flights at airports in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Shanghai, 1,022 were delayed, but only 261 were cancelled.
In the meantime, more trains were resumed and highways reopened in the region.
Shanghai Railway Station transported 795,000 passengers on Saturday alone, a record high. It was estimated that about 110,000passengers left Shanghai by road on Sunday.
The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been falling in China's eastern, central and southern regions for about three weeks. It has caused deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop destruction.
The snow havoc has hit 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, toppled 223,000 houses and damaged another 862,000, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The ministry said that nearly 7.8 million people had been affected and at least 60 people had been killed in the snow-triggered disasters.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China has, so far, deployed 306,000 soldiers to combat the worst winter storm in five decades.
About 1.07 million militia and army reservists were also participating in the relief efforts.
China orders more disaster relief efforts as weather turns milder
BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China has ordered a stepping up in disaster relief efforts on Sunday for the worst snow in 50 years as the weather was forecast to become milder next week.
The southern regions, hardest-hit by snow and freezing rain during the past three weeks, were forecast to experience rainy intervals next week, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Full story
Coal reserves at China power plants up, as railway runs in full throttle
BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Coal reserves at major power plants in snow-ravaged southern China have went up remarkably as the country's railway system has been running at full throttle to ease up the once desperate situation.
The Ministry of Railway of said Sunday a record number of 42,000 cars of coal were delivered to power plants each day on Friday and Saturday, and that the figure is expected to exceed 43,000 cars on Sunday. Full story
China urges local authorities to ensure vegetable, meat supply
BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on Sunday mobilizing all forces to ensure agricultural supplies that are severely threatened by the heavy snow that has hit the southern part of the country over the past few weeks.
About 105 million mu (seven million hectares) of farmland, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, was hit by the snow. Among these, about 11.3 million mu lost all its output to the weather. Full story
