Heavy fog fell over parts of central China on Sunday, further clogging a transport system already paralyzed by weeks of snow, a day after one person died in a stampede by frustrated train passengers stranded for days.
The fog covered parts of Hunan -- one of the provinces hit worst by the freak winter storms -- delaying flights and bringing road traffic to a standstill, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
In the capital city of Changsha, visibility was reduced to 50 meters (yards) on Sunday. Parts of Hunan have already been without electricity for days and people have been stranded in cars on icy highways and at snow and wind-swept train stations.
The provincial weather bureau has also forecast more snow for Monday and Tuesday.
Hunan, like many temperate parts of China, has little experience with snow. Houses are poorly insulated and many communities lack snowplows and other winter equipment.
The freakish weather is now in its fourth week, throttling the country's densely populated central and eastern regions as tens of millions of travelers scramble to board trains and buses to return home for this month's Lunar New Year holiday.
The weather has ripped down power lines and disrupted trains and trucking. Damage has been estimated at 53.8 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion; euro5 billion) and at least 60 people have been killed, most in traffic accidents.
The transportation disruptions have left millions wondering how they will get home for the most important holiday of the year.
Frustration boiled over at the Guangzhou train station Saturday, where a stampede to get on a train crushed Li Hongxia, a watch factory worker trying to get home to Hubei province, in central China.
Xinhua quoted the deputy head of the Guangzhou police, Qi Xiaolin, as saying Li was one of 260,000 people trying to catch a train.
Beijing, like most of northern China, has been spared the wild weather and was cold but clear Sunday.
The government has set up a command center to coordinate its response to the crisis, and leaders such as Premier Wen Jiabao have promised action.
Besides moving people, trains are also needed to move vast amounts of coal, which powers much of China's electricity and heat. Coal supplies are down to just several days in some areas, Xinhua said.
Normally coal mines use the weeklong holiday that starts Wednesday to cut production so equipment repairs can be carried out and their workers can go home, but this year more than 80 percent of the state-owned mines will run full blast, the State Administration of Working Safety said.
Xinhua quoted Ma Kai, head of the government's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, as saying steady coal supplies were "an issue of national significance."
