Posted on 01/28/2008 4:09:30 PM PST by traumer
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Chinese workers and army soldiers were racing to sweep snow-covered highways and unclog railway routes for millions of travelers trapped by cold weather.
More than 67 million people have been affected by the weather and economic losses are expected to reach as much as $3 billion, Chinese officials say.
Blizzards have snapped power lines and destroyed houses and farmland, prompting fears of food and energy shortages. Twenty-four people have died and some 827,000 people have been evacuated in 14 different provinces, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Monday.
In the past week, the snowstorms have hit the provinces in central, eastern and southern China -- places that are used to mild winters, not extreme wintry blasts.
"We've never seen such a cold weather lasting for such long a time," said Tang Shan, a man in his 70s in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. "The last time we had one here was over 50 years ago, and not this bad."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
In addition, most buildings in Shanghai aren’t heated. People wear their coats to the office when it gets cold.
If they had their own SUVs, it wouldn't have happened in the first place.
Toilets at the train station are just holes in the floor into the ground. There is no plumbing to back up in many public places.
Half a million Chinese? Why don’t they just go outside and breath heavily to goose up the carbon levels.
That Tony Snow has just gone nuts these days.
D’OH!!!!
You don’t know the half of it...unless it’s changed considerably since 2000...
What toilets??? Where I was in 2000 there were none in public areas...i.e., the airport.
The train station is gonna get ripe pretty quick then...
Nah...the holes in the floor seemed to have some pretty good water running through them...and besides it was at least 200 feet from the terminal...
Wow! The Chicoms built a train station that holds half a million people!?!?!? Now that’s news!
The snow and cold are news in that it’s occurring in a country with a huge carbon footprint.
The train stations in Shanghai (central and south stations) have plumbing. Most of the toilets are squat types, but still have flush mechanisms. There are a few sit-down toilets, but like most of the rest of the world, toilets are squatting situations.
Well, I am living in the Greater Los Angeles area and so far this winter I might as well have been living in Seattle. According to the weather broadcasters, Los Angeles has even had more rain then Seattle this year (2008). BTW - Seattle may be getting snow this week with a possible blizzard later in the week. So far down here in sunny southern California snow has gotten down to near the 2,000 foot level. The Western US has been significantly colder then normal this winter. I guess the same could also be said for the other side of the Pacific (China).
My pastor and his wife just returned from there. Within 5 minutes of getting off the plane in Hong Kong, their eyes were burning and they were ready to come back here to NH where the air is clean.
I was just up in NH with my family for Christmas...It was beautiful...
Ayup, it sure is. Climate helps keep the riffraff down, too.
“;^)
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