| |
 |
Snowstorms kill 29
|
TWENTY-NINE people have so far been frozen to death and over 800 injured in the disastrous snowstorms that have attacked parts of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region since the end of last year.
On behalf of President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao braved a temperature far below zero to inspect the blizzard-hit areas from January 19-20.
During his inspection tour, Wen visited local herdsmen's families in the central-eastern part of the region which has been attacked by six disastrous snowstorms this winter.
The central and local governments have decided to allocate more fund, grain and forage to help with the disaster relief, said Wen.
The snowstorms have devastated 31 county-level administrative areas, affecting 1.64 million people, 24.2 million ha of grasslands, and 22.3 million animals with 220,500 of them killed.
Hao Yidong, a vice-chairman of the regional people's government, said that there are more difficulties ahead, though the rescue work has been basically completed.
Local people are expecting another four months to deal with the aftermath of the calamities and local governments will try every means to help local herdsmen restore their normal life and production, Hao said, adding that the regional government would try all means to bring the losses to the minimum.(Xinhua)
|
|
|
|
