(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-02 19:34

The winter weather has hit 19 provincial regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp, toppled 223,000 houses and damaged another 862,000, said the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry said that nearly 78 million people had been affected as of January 28.

Experts said that the cold, snowy spell had displaced the 1998 Yangtze River flood as the largest natural disaster in decades. The 1998 flood affected 2.3 million people.

Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Friday the snow storm had caused 60 deaths as of January 31, but the toll was rising day by day.

The roof of a vegetable wholesale market in Nanchang, in the eastern province of Jiangxi, collapsed early on Tuesday under the weight of snow and ice, killing one and injuring 37.

On Friday, two road patrolmen, Wang Guojie and Lin Shengqiao, died after their vehicle slid off an icy 30-meter cliff in Yongjia county, eastern Zhejiang Province.

For the first time in 135 years, Shanghai posted a yellow snowstorm alert on Friday. By Saturday morning, it had received 15 cm of snow.

Affected by the weather, the Shanghai port at the mouth of the Yangtze River was closed as of 1:00 a.m. on Saturday. The move stranded more than 1,000 ships and cancelled the departures of 200.

Ice on runways and aircraft almost closed Shanghai's two international airports on Saturday morning. By noon, only 15 of 127 scheduled departing flights had left Pudong Airport. Hongqiao Airport reported 16 landings and 41 take-offs, out of 525 scheduled departures and arrivals.

Airport authorities said that 13 domestic flights were canceled.

A week after a snow cut off power in central Hunan Province, traffic on the key Beijing-Guangzhou rail line had yet to return to normal. At least 240,000 passengers were still stranded at the Guangzhou Railway Station on Friday and 5,300 police -- one sixth of the city's total force -- had been sent to maintain order.

In Hunan, where at least 20,000 electricians were working around the clock to repair the grid, the long blackout might soon end.

The State Grid of China said that power could be partially restored on Saturday in Chenzhou, a city of 4 million that was one of the hardest-hit areas. About 5,000 utility workers were on duty there.

In Hengyang, a city of 1 million people about 100 km from Chenzhou, residents in the city proper welcomed back electricity and water on Friday. "Now at last, we can clean the house, shop for groceries and prepare for the Chinese New Year," said Zuo Bin, a resident in the downtown district of Yanfeng.

Many households had run out of food and drinking water over the past week. Some had to fetch water from the Xiangjiang River for drinking and flush toilets with snow water.

   1 2   

   1 2