China’s Prime Minister consoles marooned travelers

BEIJING — Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, with bullhorn in hand, offered early wishes for the Lunar New Year and apologies to marooned travelers as record-breaking winter storms paralyzed much of east, central and south China ahead of the holiday.

An estimated 100 million to 300 million workers in China’s large cities travel to their hometowns over a monthlong period that officially begins Feb. 7 this year and is the Chinese equivalent of Christmas.

Mr. Wen left Beijing Monday night bound for Changsha, the capital of southern Hunan province, one of the places hit hardest by winter storms.

His plane was diverted to adjacent Hubei province, where Mr. Wen boarded a train and arrived at his destination yesterday morning.

Mr. Wen was shown on the China Central Television evening news broadcast inside the Changsha railway station, saying through a bullhorn that he was “deeply apologetic.”

“We are now doing our best to fix things up and you will all be home for the Spring Festival,” Mr. Wen said.

The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, begins on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar and lasts for 15 days. However, workers often take off an entire month to visit families in rural provinces.

The crisis prompted a meeting of China’s Politburo, led by President Hu Jintao.

“The top priority task at present is to ensure electricity supply and smooth communications and transport by every possible means,” the government said afterward.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs, responsible for handling natural disasters, said heavy snow and icy rain since Jan. 10 have affected nearly 78 million people with direct economic loss topping more than $3 billion.

Wang Zhikun, a top ministry official responsible for disaster relief, was quoted by Xinhua news service saying his agency will do more to organize donations of winter clothes and blankets plus accelerate the rebuilding of houses destroyed.

Reports from Shanghai, one of four megalopolises in China with the same political status as provinces, said 20 persons have been injured as a result of some of the 37 snow-related structural failures.

The city is down to a three-day supply of coal needed to generate electricity, while delays and cancellations of trains, planes and buses have brought the city to a standstill.

Zhenghou, capital of Henan province, is facing a food shortage as the normal 200 to 300 trucks per day making deliveries had dropped to a few dozen, local press reports said.

The death toll attributed to the weather rose to at least 49, including 25 persons who were killed in Guizhou province when a bus carrying 40 passengers skidded off an icy expressway and plunged 80 feet.

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