Electricity was partly or fully restored to 164 snow-stricken
counties in China, including Chenzhou city in Hunan Province, after
workers reconnected local power lines to the national grid, Xinhua
learned late Wednesday.
The power came back on just in time for the Lunar New Year
holiday.
The remaining five counties blacked out by the worst winter snow
in more than five decades were using portable generators, the
disaster relief and emergency command center under the State
Council said.
The center said Wednesday afternoon that 13 percent of the
countryside in the disaster areas remained in the dark on the Lunar
New Year's Eve, the most important family holiday in China.
In Chenzhou, the hardest-hit by the weather, about 1,000 pylons
and poles collapsed under the weight of ice and snow, which meant
that the local grid, which took decades to build, was totally
destroyed. More than 5,000 utility workers, including 2,000 from
other provinces, were still struggling to repair the damage on
Wednesday.
The severe weather killed scores of people and disrupted
transport and power services across a large swathe of the country's
southern, central and eastern regions.
Nationwide, 36.23 million kilowatts of generating capacity were
still closed as of Tuesday because of coal shortages caused by
transportation disruptions. But that was 990,000 kw less off-line
than on Monday.
A total 2,282 coal mines, or 63.8 percent of the nation's coal
production capacity, would operate normally during the Spring
Festival after the government called them to raise output to ease
shortage. The percentage was 23.2 points higher than originally
planned.
The government transported an average of 42,953 container rail
cars of power coal per day from Feb. 1 to 5, which was 53 percent
more than a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Railways. A
year earlier, however, there was no comparable weather
disruption.
Rail, road, and air services were returning to normal as the
weather cleared over the past few days, ending more than three
weeks of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
All the airports, except small regional Liping airport in
Guizhou, have been reopened by Wednesday. All the earlier stranded
passengers at the major railway stations have also taken
trains.
The mobile phone base stations that were paralyzed by the severe
weather have been reduced to 14,000 by 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, 19,000
less than a day ago.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) on Wednesday took
weather officials off severe alert status, as forecasts for rain
and snow were downgraded for central, eastern and southern
provinces.
As most of China is predicted to have clear weather for the
Lunar New Year holiday, the country may get a breathing space to
recover from the disaster.
(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2008)