Wild China weather kills 25 and besieges heartland

Chaotic winter weather besieged China's business and farming heartland on Tuesday amid the country's worst power crisis, with one mountain road accident blamed on snow killing 25 people ahead of a major holiday.

Millions of migrant workers in the booming southern province of Guangdong were urged to abandon plans to go home to celebrate next week's Lunar New Year holiday, or Spring Festival, because train tracks were blocked by snow.

Icy temperatures, snow and sleet blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China have crippled thousands of trucks and trains loaded with coal, food and passengers in the most severe winter weather seen in 50 years.

A bus plunged more than 40 metres (130 ft) from a snowy mountain road in the south-western province of Guizhou, Xinhua news agency said, the first known major accident caused by the freak weather.

Elsewhere, about 24 people have died in recent weather-related accidents, including three workers killed while trying to fix iced-up power lines.

Premier Wen Jiabao visited stricken Hunan province, north of Guangdong, Xinhua said. Wen first flew to neighbouring Hubei province, because Hunan's main airport was iced in.

The snow across regions that usually have fairly temperate, snow-free winters was likely to stretch beyond Tuesday, the national forecaster said on its Web site (www.nmc.gov.cn). Beijing remained cold but clear.

China warned residents of Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the country's commercial engine room, to stay indoors if possible. In Shanghai, some food shelves in shops emptied as people stocked up.

Analysts said the brutal weather was a short-term blow to the economy and would stoke inflation that already has the government worried. It hit an 11-year high of 4.8 percent last year.

"The short-term impact on the economy is big, with transport disrupted, prices of agricultural products, in particular vegetables, rising," said Jin Dehuan of the Shanghai Securities and Futures Institute as stock prices appeared to stabilise after huge losses on Monday.

ENERGY FEARS

Jin said the weather chaos could jolt inflation higher in January but the broader impact would be limited.

Blocked roads and railways have also choked coal shipments, magnifying energy shortages that have caused power brownouts in 17 of China's 31 provinces and province-status cities.

More than 800,000 residents in Chenzhou, in the southern and relatively warm part of Hunan, had had their power and water supplies cut off for five days, state television said.

The country's worst power crisis has forced major industrial users like metal smelters to shut down. Beijing is urging small coal mines closed in a safety drive to restart production if they have been "rectified".

Fuel stockpiles at many plants have plunged to levels that cover just a few days of generation, but analysts say the power problem is caused as much by policy as weather.

Adding to energy woes, blocked roads and railways have disrupted fuel shipments so diesel is running out in some areas.

They have also wrecked travel plans for the Lunar New Year holiday, a traditional time for family reunions. Xinhua said Guangdong authorities had urged millions of migrant workers to stay put.

"Authorities shall persuade migrant workers to postpone homebound journeys and strive to keep more than 65 percent of them in Guangdong during the festival," said a circular issued by the Department of Labour.

More than half a million rail passengers were stranded in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, because of heavy snow blocking the track further north in Hunan.

"Police and armed police were deployed to keep order," Xinhua said after reports of scuffles at the railway station on Monday.

On the main highway between Guangdong and Hunan, more than 20,000 trucks and other vehicles were stranded, Xinhua said.

Up to 19 airports are completely shut and flights from many others are badly delayed.

Newspapers said the disaster had also exposed bureaucratic confusion and obfuscation. The Beijing News complained that some railway officials refused to give information on severed services.

"Blocked information is the big enemy of disaster relief," the paper said.