China on Sunday ordered urgent steps to fight transport chaos and energy and food supply strains caused by brutal winter weather, which forecasts said was likely to continue as the nation heads into a major holiday, according to Reuters. Heavy snow and sleet has hit central, eastern and southern China in recent days, areas used to milder winters. Dozens of people have died and many highways, railways and airports have been paralysed, especially in the east. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the weather was threatening lives and disrupting supplies of fresh food, coal, oil and electricity ahead of celebrations marking the Lunar New Year, which starts on Feb. 7. He warned worse could come. "Urgently mobilise and work as one to wage this tough battle against disaster," Wen told officials. "Ensure that the people enjoy a joyful and auspicious Spring Festival." He and other top officials announced steps aimed at softening the economic blow from the bad weather and energy shortages when inflation is already a dominant worry. Provinces were ordered not hoard their own coal and electricity, and officials said they would waive some transport charges for farm goods and monitor price hikes. Trains must cope with tens of millions of passengers surging home for the holidays, while more coal must be shipped to power plants. The national forecasting authority said the freezing weather would continue to hit provinces from west to east over the next week, with heavy snows expected in Shanghai and neighbouring provinces -- powerhouses of business and manufacturing. Wen said energy strains could worsen as power plants' coal reserves ran dangerously low. "The most difficult phase has not passed," he said. Already 17 of China's 31 provinces and province-level cities are enduring reduced power supplies, the China News Service said. Coal shortages, partly due to the bad weather, have closed 5.6 percent of electricity generating capacity, Xinhua reported. Heavy snow and ice have brought down homes, snapped power lines and destroyed crops. Television reports showed railway stations and airports crammed with weary travellers unsure when and how they would return home. In mountainous Guizhou province in the southwest there were widespread blackouts, three deaths and 877 buildings collapsed, Xinhua news agency said. In Hunan province in the south, five people died in accidents sparked by icy rains and cold. The weather closed several regional airports, including Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. State television also showed highways crowded with trucks paralysed by the snow. The freezing temperatures are especially hard for people living south of the Yangtze River, as the government does not give them the same home heating given to northerners. In Guangzhou in the far south, more than 100,000 people crammed the main railway station, many of them rural migrant workers eager to return home for the traditional Lunar New Year. Police closed roads around the station and pulled passengers from the dangerous crush, the Guangzhou Daily reported.
