China's Katrina?

By Feifan

As you might know from the news, at the beginning of this February, China was hit with a series of severe winter storms. How severe? It was reported to be the worst winter weather in over half a century, and the coldest winter in 20 years. The storms covered a huge swath of land from the beginning of January to the beginning of February from Xinjiang on China’s northwest border all the way to the eastern coast.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/China_snow_2008_eng.png

The effect of all this was disorder on a massive scale. Many small buildings were damaged when their roofs collapsed from the snow, 223,000 homes were destroyed and 862,000 others were damaged. Many cities were left without power or water, and telecommunications and internet infrastructures were damaged across the nation as well. China’s Xinhua news agency reported that 129 people were killed as a result of the snowstorms, with another 1.8 million Chinese citizens having to be relocated. Among these fatalities were a bus crash in my home province of Anhui in which 11 people died, and the incident with 3 workers who were killed trying to remove ice from power lines, a story that the government quickly jumped upon, calling the 3 men “revolutionary martyrs”. As well, there was massive damage to China’s agricultural infrastructure (refer to link).

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080201/98198463.html

Note that the picture on that story is either the PLA or the People’s Armed Police out in force to shovel the snow, while red flags wave in the background. Particularly amusing is that one guy in the middle raising a flag. Interesting, the kind of public relations you get in a country still ruled by a communist regime. :]

The effect on China’s people was profound as well. As luck would have it, these storms happened to fall exactly at the time of the yearly Spring Festival (also known as Chinese New Year) celebrations. As you might have seen in the news, countless numbers of migrant workers that are employed in cities were trapped at bus and train stations (especially in Guangzhou) by the bad weather.

Now thankfully, everyone in my family generally just stays in our hometown of Hefei, but for all those who work away from their relatives, getting home for the holidays was imperative. It seems like aside from the small stores and restaurants, usually when Spring Festival rolls around most of China grinds to a halt as people find time to visit with their families. Of course, Chinese values espouses the importance of close family ties, so it’s not as if all those stranded at transportation hubs were just about to give up. But ultimately, millions of travelers were forced to cancel their plans. Not exactly a great way to ring in the New Year.

A special report on "China's War on Snow Havoc" can be found here:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/08snow/index.htm