Medium, heavy snow to hit China’s west, northeast

BEIJING—Medium and heavy snow will continue to plague west China and reach northeastern regions in the next three days, said the National Meteorological Center (NMC) on Wednesday.
The snow will hit northwest Yunnan and the southeastern areas of Tibet and Qinghai in the west, as well as the country’s northeastern provinces. Part of northwest Yunnan will experience blizzards, the NMC said. Sleet and rain was forecast in the south and southeast. The NMC urged local governments to prevent the bad effects of the snowy weather on land and air traffic, power grids, agriculture and animal husbandry.
A new round of snow has hit many provinces of China since last week, disrupting traffic and killing livestock. The country just went through the worst snow in 50 years, whichclaimed 129 lives, devastated 485,000 houses and damaged about 25 million mu (about 1.67 million hectare) in crops, leading to a direct economic loss of 151.6 billion yuan (about 20.8 billion U.S. dollars). A Ministry of Civil Affairs official said on Tuesday that China’s snow-hit southern provinces were in stable condition, but the damage remained serious. The country’s post-snow disaster-relief work would focus on taking care of people’s basic livelihood and reconstruction, said Wang Zhenyao, director of the disaster alleviation office under the ministry.
A reconstruction plan would be formed before April and basic reconstruction would be finished by the end of June, said Wang during an interview on the central government’s website. He said the reconstruction should reach to the grassroots and “no one shall be ignored”. Wang warned locals against derived disasters and called for proper arrangements for people’s livelihood to be restored in the worst-hit provinces. Houses needed to be rebuilt and the reconstruction was urgent. According to ministry statistics, about 17 million people needed to be subsidized by the government in the worst-hit provinces and areas.—Xinhua