Cold Chinese Grow Angry Over Lack of Preparation
Liu Xinfang, a spokesman for the national grid, said that as of Saturday 2,000 transmission towers and about 24,000 miles of transmission cables were still down in central and eastern China. “The wires have been frozen into huge ice sticks,” he said. “Some towers are bearing four times their weight.”
Others said the high number of collapsed transmission towers was a result of the fact that in southern China they are spaced far apart, largely as an economy measure.
One of the worst-hit areas for power has been Chenzhou, a city of four million in Hunan Province, where many have lacked water, electricity, heating or commercial food supplies for 10 days.
“Our power grid system was seriously damaged, in fact torn to pieces, and it is very hard to repair,” said Li Yufang, chief of the city’s emergency operations center. “When one part of the grid is fixed, another suddenly collapses, so power can only be transmitted intermittently.”
In southeastern Guizhou, another hard-hit area, officials said there had been extensive loss of winter crops, like wheat. Power has been out there for weeks.
That kind of excuse didn't cut it for FEMA according to our medias standrads this should have been cleared up within a couple of hours without any help from the effected citizens.
Most of China to get clear weather for coming holiday
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- During the upcoming Lunar New Year China will get a much-needed respite from the arctic weather that has blasted much of the country for the past three weeks, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said Monday.
On Monday and Tuesday, light snow and sleet would fall on some parts of the country's northwest and in the areas south to the Yangtze River. Icy rain is forecast for some mountainous areas of Guizhou.
Yu said since Jan. 10, snow, sleet and low temperatures have swept China's southern regions, a rarity for the area. The worst winter weather in five decades has been more extreme in the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan. A lingering blizzard, which has lasted more than two weeks, was the longest in the past 100 years. In Hunan, ice sticking to electricity transmission cables was between 30 and 60 millimeters thick.
According to Yu, Anhui Province had experienced continuous snow for 24 days, the longest in more than 50 years, while Zhejiang Province had its worst snowstorm in the past 84 years.
Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia also recorded their highest precipitation since 1951.