Frozen, and forgotten, world

The situation in Guizhou province, south-west China is grave. Seventy percent of rainfall is pure ice. Two thirds of electricity has been cut off, and water pipes are frozen. Many people in isolated towns are completely cut off from the world, while the rest of China remains oblivious to the extent of the disaster. To avoid national panic the authorities have downplayed events. But they may also be trying to cover up their poor reaction to the catastrophe.

"If they don't do something soon, a lot of people are going to die"

A resident of Renhuai City, Guizhou province, who works for the local transport department, wrote a personal account of the siuation in the area:

It's dead. There's no running water, no electricity, no more food or fuel. The roads have been blocked for two weeks. Even the main street's impassable- it's covered in seven centimetres of ice! Some people have frozen to death. But there's nothing to fuel the furnace at the cemetery. I can't bear it and sometimes wake up thinking it's not really happening.

Today three hours of electricity was delivered. But it will be used up immediately. When this whole thing started, the government did nothing. And if they don't do something soon, a lot of people are going to die. There are no goods coming in, and costs are extortionate. It's over €2 for a kilo of coal, a candle costs 50 cents and the little boiled cabbage that's available is €1/kg. And these supplies are only going to last two more days. After that, you can expect a lot more dead bodies.

There is no hope for us; we don't even have a television connection to tell us that rescue is on its way. We don't have any way to use mobile phones. We've been completely abandoned for over two weeks now."

Pylons throttled by ice

China Southern Power Grid tries to restart the frozen system on a pylon on the network from Fuquan to Qingyan in Guizhou province.

Photo taken 23 January 2008 and posted on gzdw.com

Guangzhou train station: "No replacement bus service, and not one train announcement"

It was estimated by railway officials that 178.6 million people planned to travel by train for New Year celebrations in China. But the train service has already ground to a halt. This blogger, called ‘ShishiFeifei', writes up her account of the chaos at Guangzhou station, where 800,000 people were stuck with no means of transport. Two hundred thousand of them are currently housed in temporary lodgings, unable to get home.

I was supposed to be travelling from Shenzen City (on the east coast) to Chongqing. I had seen on TV that there were some problems with the snow, but I thought my trip might be ‘harmonious' because my route didn't pass through the disaster area. However, I got stuck already in Guangzhou City. The square was packed, the waiting room locked and the ticket hall completely blocked. No hot water, no shelter. The police told us to go to a special area. There was no replacement bus service, and not one train announcement. In the end, I couldn't bear it anymore, and decided to go back to Shenzhen. I had waited six hours and yet was none-the-wiser. I just couldn't understand why they didn't give us more information. What were they trying to avoid?"

Photos taken at Guangzhou train station

Photos posted on oeeee.com, 1 February 2008

Chaos at Guangzhou station reported by a Chinese channel

Posted on youku.com by ‘busdriver' on January 30, 2008