CHINA:China's top leaders donned hard-hats and anoraks yesterday in morale-boosting visits to some of the millions of people stranded by the worst ice and snow in 50 years, as water, food and fuel supplies continued to dwindle.
Keeping coal output high and food moving has become a priority as hundreds of areas suffered electricity blackouts in China's worst power crisis.
The bad weather in the central and southern regions augurs badly for the start of the Chinese New Year holiday next Thursday, and many of the millions of migrant workers who normally travel home for the start of the lunar new year have been forced to stay put. Millions of soldiers, paramilitary police and regular officers have been mobilised to help with disaster relief, while the air force has been flying in relief to isolated areas.
Snow has completely dominated state media for the past week and there was lengthy footage of President Hu Jintao wearing overalls and a red hard hat as he urged miners in Shanxi province and dock workers at Qinhuangdao Port to keep fuel moving to the power stations of southern China.
"Disaster-hit areas need coal and the power plants need coal," Mr Hu told the workers. He was also seen poring over maps as he jetted around the country trying to keep morale high. Premier Wen Jiabao has also been on the road for the past three days.
Miners are working around the clock to keep output high. As rail services gradually creak back into life, priority has been given to coal transportation to fuel the coal-fired power stations.
Hunan province has been very badly affected and the city of Chenzhou, which has four million inhabitants, has been without power and water for more than a week. State TV reported that Chenzhou only had enough petrol for one more week and rice, cooking oil and vegetables were also running out.
The heavy snow over the past three weeks has caused economic losses of 54 billion yuan (€5 billion), a government spokesman said. Snow continued to fall yesterday and more bad weather has been forecast.