Special Report: China's war on snow
havoc
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- No cases of infectious
epidemic or mass food poisoning were reported in China's snow-stricken areas by
Feb. 14, the Ministry of Health said on its official website.
It said 25,115 medical teams with more than 182,900
staff had been dispatched to treat 402,200 ill and injured persons in disaster
areas by Thursday.
The medical teams mainly focused on treating
respiratory diseases, fractures and frostbite. No epidemics or mass food
poisoning induced by the prolonged snow were reported.
Authorities delivered close to 10 million brochures
advising the public on disease prevention and the impact of the bad weather.
Over 1.99 million cotton-padded coats and quilts were sent to disaster-hit
areas.
So far, the death toll caused by infectious diseases
in the snow-stricken areas showed no year-on-year increase in the past month,
the ministry said.
The prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy
snow in the southern part of China have claimed 107 lives in the past month and
caused direct economic loss of an estimated 111.1 billion yuan (about 15.3
billion U.S. dollars).
By Wednesday, the Civil Affairs and Finance
ministries had allocated a total of 535 million yuan (73.79 million U.S.
dollars) in emergency funding to 19 provincial-level regions affected by the
disaster.
The ministries also earmarked another 710 million
yuan for needy urban and rural residents in seven of the worst-hit provinces and
regions as temporary subsidies.
Experts urge boosting early-warning
and emergency-response system in wake of snow chaos
¡¡BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Participants of
a symposium held by China's top advisory body urged the country to make greater
efforts in monitoring and assessing possible meteorological disasters.
"We should learn from the
prolonged snow storms in the southern parts of China in the past month, and
perfect our early-warning system and emergency-response mechanism against
meteorological hazards," said Zheng Guoguang, China Meteorological
Administration (CMA) head, here on Thursday. Full story
China's snow disaster areas shift
focus to reconstruction work
CHANGSHA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) --
Areas of China affected by the recent severe weather have shifted from emergency
work to reconstruction, with transport and power supplies returning to normal.
The government of central Hunan
Province, one of the areas hardest hit by the worst weather in half a century,
said that it would offer a subsidy of 5,000 yuan (694 U.S. dollars) to each
household whose residence was destroyed. Around 67,000 houses in Hunan collapsed
in the snowy weather, which persisted from mid-January through late in the
month. Full story
President Hu: Hold firm belief in victory over weather crisis
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu
Jintao called on the public on Monday to hold the firm belief of victory over
the weather crisis that is still plaguing the southern part of the country.
Hu also stressed that the public should not overlook
the situation and task of the current relief work. Full story
Chinese premier makes latest visit to
disaster-hit region, 3rd in 9 days
BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- As most Chinese prepared
dinners for Lunar New Year's Eve family reunions, Premier Wen Jiabao had a busy
travel schedule that took him around the country's winter disaster areas.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wen hastened to the eastern
province of Jiangxi where he visited the city of Fuzhou, which has been in the
dark for more than 20 days. Full story
