Deadly Blizzards Wreak Havoc In China

500,000 Stranded And More Storms Loom; At Least 25 Killed After Bus Slides Off Icy Road

(AP)  A new round of blizzards threatened Chinese provinces that were trying to dig out from snow and ice storms that have stranded hundreds of thousands of people during the nation's busiest holiday travel season.

Meanwhile, at least 25 people were killed and 13 injured early Tuesday in southern China, after a bus slid on an icy section of the roadway and went off the road in mountainous Guizhou province, Xinhua News Agency said. Wintery weather has caused numerous accidents, closed roads and delayed trains.

About 500,000 people - most of them migrant workers - were stuck in the southern city of Guangzhou, railway officials said. Heavy snowfall in provinces to the north had cut off parts of the busy railway line that starts in the city and ends in Beijing.

Officials were scrambling to prevent riots in Guangzhou and find temporary shelter in schools and convention centers for the crowd, which was swelling each day as more workers tried to return to their hometowns for the Chinese New Year.

The holiday, which begins on Feb. 7, is as important in China as Christmas is in the West. For many migrants, it's their only chance to visit their families, and they stay away for weeks.

But many looked set to be disappointed as forecasters warned Monday that more heavy snow and freezing rain would hit the central provinces of Hunan, Hubei and Henan, as well as Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu to the east this week.

The storms, which have killed 24 people since they began Jan. 10, have already caused economic losses of 18.2 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion; euro1.7 billion), the Civil Affairs Ministry said.

At Guangzhou's main train station, a massive outdoor plaza was packed with people pulling luggage or hefting it over their heads. The crowd spilled out onto a major thoroughfare in front of the station, and the busy road was blocked off to create more space for the travelers.

The workers created small camps with their suitcases, bundles and bags of snacks. They littered the ground with chicken bones, sunflower seed shells and cigarette butts.

Radio announcements told people to stop going to the station, which ceased selling tickets until Feb. 7. State-run newspapers ran headlines urging the migrants to seek ticket refunds and stay put for the holiday.

Li Moming, a construction worker, said he spent the night on the street, enduring a bone-chilling drizzle. The train that was to take the 48-year-old man to his village in central Henan province - 20 hours away - was canceled. He said his next move might be to scuttle his travel plans and spend the holiday in his dormitory room at his work site.

"I thought about taking a bus but the highways are shut down, too. Oh well, what can you do?" said the jovial Li, dressed in a mud-splattered brown pinstriped suit for his ill-fated homecoming.

Other migrant workers were just as stoic - an approach to life they've learned from living on the rugged bottom rung of China's society, with constant hardship, long delays and disappointment.

But the authorities were prepared for the worst. Hundreds of police and soldiers set up barricades and controlled the flow of the crowd. They blew whistles and barked orders at the travelers with megaphones.

[rushlimpdrug]

1. Ain''t snow grand!
2. Gotta love those chineeze - New Year in February!
3. If they can build a Great Wall, perhaps they should try a Great Dome?

[erasmus6]

"Officials were scrambling to prevent riots..."

RIOTS? Because of snow??

[prinzowhales]

Thank God! When I first glanced at the headline, I thought it read "buzzards"...too much Sci fi....

[rushlimpdrug]

Don''t these guys read their fortune cookies before they go out?

[easeup-2009]

ROUSY BRIZZARDS!!! I BRAME WESTERN CAPITARIST PIGS!!!

[killtheliars]

I hope the only tools they have to dig out are cheap plastic made in china shovels, and I hope they are only allowed one each, therefore when they crack in half after the first or second use they will be screwed. wopuld that not be poetic justice?

[rushlimpdrug]

can you imagine half a million chineeze singing:
"It''s beginning to wok a wot like Chwismas . . "

[one_american]

Ahhhh sooooo. Gwo-bal Wah-ming!

[piercetheval]

Confucius say: "A burden shared by many can become light as a feather." Confuseus say: " I''ll have FEMA look into it in the morning."

[piercetheval]

oneamerican...I''m a ''lil slow this morn..but ooohhhhhh

[heyitsme_76]

I guess the shovels they are using are manufactured by Wal-Mart.. ;)

[jowand]

Boy is BIG Al Gore going to be POd about this, it''s not supposed to be doing this.

[rudy654-2009]

Boy is BIG Al Gore going to be POd about this, it''''s not supposed to be doing this.
Posted by jowand at 04:12 PM

Better pull up your pants, because that big crack in the back of your fat "ignorance" is showing.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by One_American at 03:35 PM

One ignorant American who didn''t get past 3rd grade on that religious compound in Texas.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 02:50 PM

I could you singing that song at a KKK meetin.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by killtheliars at 02:32 PM

I kept hoping that you would be found under the roof in that picture. But Noooooo! You are here! Rats.

[jjloveyaya]

i wish the snow stop quickly
---------------------------------
i am a young and handsome man from us. i just wonder if i can meet a rich momma here, because i am at the beginning of my career and i need someone''s support..i uploaded my hot photos on sugarmommameet.com under the name piccolo , maybe you want to check out my photos firstly!

[rudy654-2009]

Don''''t these guys read their fortune cookies before they go out?Posted by rushlimpdrug at 12:53 PM

Silly! Those are only reserved for Americans like you after you get your fifth or sixth helping at the all-you-can-eat China Wok Restaurant. After that you will really be full of "it."

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by jjloveyaya at 04:37 PM

You do right to come here to this article, because there is plenty of scum here to take you up on your prostitution. I hope you get yourself checked out for those HIV symptoms you have had lately.

[rushlimpdrug]

Ah, China. Where the wice is white and the snow is yerow.

[beehive21-2009]

The chinese ,been around at least 10,000 years , we been here a couple of hundred years.Saddle up folks, we need to help em out. Why r some of you so hostile ? forget your medications ,today ? we have places for hostile people, u escape or something ?

[olebd]

It turns out the precipitation wasn''t snow, it was heavy amounts of U.S. dollars raining down upon them.

[rushlimpdrug]

The chinese ,been around at least 10,000 years , we been here a couple of hundred years.Saddle up folks, we need to help em out. Why r some of you so hostile ? forget your medications ,today ? we have places for hostile people, u escape or something ?
Posted by beehive21 at 05:38 PM

So you''d think the chineeze would have the snow thing figured out by now?

[prinzowhales]

Where is Al Gore? Why don''t we hear about dat bad ole Glow-ball warming? Siberia was deathly cold last week...we had snow in Baghdad and there have been record lows in the Southern Hemisphere during their winter months. Save the Chinese, Al! The snow is deadly hot!

[luvcomments]

Whoops !! Sorry ! Must''ve got off at the wrong floor - they told me this is where the Americans are. My mistake.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

The Muslims are chanting Victory!!!!!! For the person who might be in office of president!

[runningralph]

The Chinese are intelligent, hard working, tough people. They will get through this storm and have their factories shipping orders while Americans are still whining about Katrina and trying to figure how to sue the taxpayers that helped tem.

[juwboy]

Which of the following two extreme climate situations causes more deaths?

(A) a cold winter
(B) a hot summer

The answer is (A) by a massive margin.

So, why aren''t we doing everything we possibly can to promote and accelerate global warming until the two numbers are comparable?

That''s when our planet will have its ideal, optimum climate.

juwboy: You forgot c - disease - which will skyrocket with a warmer climate.

[glaswolf]

dragonking5: If you listen a bit to Israel National Radio, you will realize just how embedded the idea of guiding others against their will is within the hearts and minds of the jewish diaspora, according to their Torah dictates. This contradicts the ZEN of the Budha. It is interesting that you should so casually juxtapose such contradictory philosophies.

[glaswolf]

juwboy: Were it not for the efforts of populations from colder climates to waste resources saving people who live in warm climates, pestulence would savage the populations of the warm climates. Imagine Africa without Western intervention, extermination ethics as we see among the Kikuyu and Luo of Obama''s father''s FatherLand would have pushed the death rates in hot arenas past those in cold arenas. On the other hand if we were pseudo scientific, we could put 100 Kikuyu in an icebox and 100 Luos in steam bath and truly the icebunnies would perrish and the sweaters would laugh without cloth. I suppose it''s biblical.