Transport resumes in frozen south China

BEIJING—Rail, highway and air transport systems paralyzed by freezing weather in south China are recovering gradually ahead of the Lunar New Year, but millions of people are still cold and in the dark.
Residents in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, where more than 31,000 households were still without power as of Tuesday, have been using candles since Monday afternoon when a military cargo plane transported 500,000 candles into the area.
Authorities said that they had decided to use the military plane to move the 28.66 tons of candles because air was the quickest way to bring light to the people of Enshi. An Enshi official said that this was the first time that the prefecture had received disaster relief via a military transport.
Meanwhile, Chenzhou, a city of about four million in the central province of Hunan, began its 11th day without electricity and tap water. More than 5,000 electricians, including 2,000 summoned from other provinces, were struggling to repair damaged power lines and pylons.
About 1,000 pylons and poles have collapsed under the weight of ice and snow, which means the local electricity grid that took decades to construct had been totally destroyed, experts said on Tuesday, adding it was impossible to restore the grid in a short time. Road traffic was in chaos in the city as traffic lights were not working. People queued in front of the few banks with generators to draw cash. Chenzhou residents have to collect coal and charcoal to warm themselves, which caused the prices to surge tenfold. State Grid has sent generators to ensure the operation of hospital, grain depot and waterworks. It also planned to use helicopters in repairing the cables and pylons and could apply for electricity-generating trains.
Meanwhile, to keep the expressways moving, the transport authorities in eastern Zhejiang Province on Tuesday suspended all vehicle tolls. The move came after a major north-south trunk road, the Beijing-Zhuhai expressway, returned to normal on Monday after de-icing work by 1,200 troops and police over the past week.—Xinhua