Most of China Back to Normal After Snow Disaster
Date: 11-Feb-08
Country: CHINA
Author: Andrew Torchia
"We have achieved a partial victory against the rain, snow and ice," the disaster relief centre under the State Council, or cabinet, declared in a statement quoted by Xinhua news agency.
The centre said it was now stepping up operations to bring food, clothing, medical supplies and shelter to remote and mountainous areas, where disaster relief remained difficult and could take much longer.
In the past four weeks, snow and cold killed more than 80 people, caused the collapse of 300,000 homes and inflicted direct economic losses of about 80 billion yuan ($11.1 billion), Xinhua quoted the Red Cross Society of China as saying.
The statistics suggested long-term damage to the economy might be smaller than feared. The latest estimate was a tiny fraction of last year's gross domestic product of $3.4 trillion.
Analysts believe much of the lost output can be recovered in the coming months, especially if authorities loosen fiscal and monetary policy to boost the economy, as appears likely.
The agriculture ministry estimated 141 million mu (9.4 million hectares), under 8 percent of China's arable land, had been affected. Crop losses were classified as serious on 59 percent of the affected area.
The fierce weather combined with holiday demand to send some food prices soaring -- fresh vegetable prices jumped more than 30 percent in some areas during the last week of January, fuelling fears of a spike in inflation, already near an 11-year high.
But the disaster relief centre reported on Sunday that food prices had generally stabilised even in the worst-hit areas, with prices of meat and eggs coming down slightly.
Skies across much of central and eastern China were clear on Sunday, although the national weather service said another cold spell was likely in the next two or three days and parts of the hard-hit southwest could receive more snow and sleet.
Xinhua said about 2.5 million soldiers, police and reservists were mobilised for relief work during the disaster, which struck as tens of millions of Chinese were starting to travel across the country for family visits during Lunar New Year holidays.
Rail services, which were crippled by blocked tracks and damage to electric trains' power lines, had returned to normal by Saturday and officials were preparing for another surge of passengers as the holidays end this week, Xinhua said.
Only a few highway sections, in remote areas such as the southwestern region of Guangxi, were still blocked by fallen trees and cave-ins. Traffic was smooth on the Beijing-Zhuhai expressway, a major route from southern to northern China.
Airline flights were largely normal and all major airports were open, Xinhua said, after the weather forced the closure of airports and the cancellation of thousands of flights last week.
As of late Saturday, electricity had been restored to 92 percent of the 22.7 million households which suffered power cuts, Xinhua said.
Coal stocks at power stations, which were slashed by the transport chaos, had begun rising and totalled 21.7 million tonnes late on Friday, enough for 11 days of generation.
The disaster was a public relations debacle for the government, which was accused by many people in blacked-out cities and chaotic railway stations of failing to do enough to reduce the impact of the weather.
Official media on Sunday carried a series of reports describing visits by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to disaster-hit areas, and stressing that Lunar New Year celebrations continued as normal in many parts of China.
(US $1 = 7.18 yuan)
