Snow storm kills dozens in China and $3 bil in damages

he Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has ordered its troops to go all out to combat the lingering heavy snow in the southern part of the country.

    The PLA's Department of General Staff and General Political Department issued a joint decree on Monday, ordering troops in the affected areas to join in the anti-snow battle in collaboration with local governments.

    The troops should give whatever assistance local governments require for fighting disaster and in rescuing people, the order said.

    So far, 158,000 PLA troops and the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) and 303,000 paramilitary members have joined the anti-snow campaign.

  More than 77.86 million people had been affected by the snow in 14 provinces, including Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan by 2 p.m. Monday, according to the ministry.

    Among the deaths, 10 were killed in collapses of homes weighed down by the snow and another 10 died after falling on slippery roads. Two people drowned and two were hit by falling trees laden with heavy snow.

The snow has affected more than 4.2 million hectares of farmland, led to the collapse of about 107,000 houses and damaged 399,000 other homes.

    Direct economic losses are estimated at 22.09 billion yuan (about 3 billion U.S. dollars).

    According to reports from local civil affairs departments, snowis still falling in some southern provinces, such as Hunan and Hubei, while some areas in Guizhou, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are getting icy rain.

    On Monday, flights in at least 10 cities including Wuhan, Nanjing, Changsha and Changzhou were halted temporarily due to bad weather.

    Four expressways in Shanghai have been closed indefinitely by snow.

    By 4 p.m. Sunday, the snow had affected 5.97 million citizens and 3.93 million mu (some 648,500 ha.) of farmland in Anhui Province, made 24,000 people homeless, collapsed 12,800 houses and damaged 49,600 others, causing a direct economic loss of 1.6 billion yuan.

   Governments at all levels have extended logistic and financial support.

    Working around the clock, the Ministry of Civil Affairs launched five times the VI emergency disaster response from Jan. 21 to 27.

    On Jan. 22, the ministry also provided financial aid of 1.75 billion yuan, jointly with the Ministry of Finance, for hard-hit areas, of which 14 million yuan was given to Hubei and Hunan provinces, which have been seriously affected.

    In Hunan Province, civil affairs departments handed out more than 32.4 million yuan, as well as 78,000 quilts, 620,000 items of clothing, 780 tons of rice and 10 tons of cooking oil to the needy people.

Amid China's worst snow disaster in decades, the Chinese leaders have shown the public a hands-on approach by visiting people working on the front lines of the weather crisis.

    After chairing two key meetings in as many days in Beijing, President Hu Jintao took an inspection tour on Thursday to coal fields in Datong of Shanxi Province and Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei province, through which much of Shanxi's coal is shipped.

    Premier Wen Jiabao was also on the road for much of the past three days.

Wen flew out of Beijing on Monday night to Hunan Province but had to land at Tianhe Airport in neighboring Hubei Province because of the bad weather. He completed his journey by train and arrived in Changsha City, the provincial capital, on Tuesday morning.

    In Changsha railway station, Wen offered early Spring Festival wishes to stranded passengers.

    "I am deeply apologetic that you are stranded in the railway station and not able to go home earlier," Wen told the passengers through a megaphone. "We are now doing our best to fix things up and you will all be home for the Spring Festival."

China's battle against the ravages of snow storms is such a big story that it will be included in the annual gala for the Lunar New Year celebration on China Central Television (CCTV), a show that is usually the domain of laughter and songs.

    "The ice and snow disaster is hogging most of the headlines in the news, and we will definitely put it in this year's gala," said Zhu Tong, the director of CCTV's art department, at a news briefing Thursday.

    The gala, since its debut in 1987, has been the most popular TV event of the year attracting a major part of the 1.3 billion Chinese audience on the Lunar New Year's Eve, which this year falls on February 6.

    CCTV has sent reporters and editors to snow-hit regions to "collect first-hand material" in the hope of preparing heart-warming stories of triumph over disaster, Zhu said.

    "We will use poems and singing, with background video footage of people combating the snow, to demonstrate the high level of attention and caring of Chinese authorities, the efforts of local governments and the military, and touching stories of a helping society," he added.