A State Council meeting on Friday, presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, called on the nation to make greater efforts to ensure economic and social stability in the face of persistent bad weather.
It said overcast days with snow, rain and icy rain will continue to haunt most parts of southern China for several days. The disaster is still developing.
"The most difficult period is still not over yet. The situation remains grim," said the meeting.
It called on various localities and departments to take ample consideration of the difficulties and do more solid work to ensure economic and social stability and that people could celebrate the Spring Festival in a happy and peaceful mood.
According to the meeting, the top priorities at present are to keep road traffic moving, ensure power supply and guarantee people's daily lives are normal.
It called the snow havoc an event that would test the will, resolution and capability of leaders of various levels to deal with crisis and overcome difficulties.
The meeting urged stronger effort to repair the crippling rail lines and give priorities to the transportation of coal and living necessities to supply Spring Festival market.
Power conservation is still vital. Party and government organizations should take a lead in saving energy to ensure power supply for people's living, it said.
The meeting advised people to cut travel plans while pledging efforts to provide stranded passengers with food, warmth and medicine. Meanwhile, coal production should speed up, it said.
Jia Qinglin, Xi Jinping and Zhou Yongkang, who are members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, visited the havoc-stricken Anhui, Guizhou and Henan province respectively on Friday.
The heavy snow that has fallen since mid-January, the worst in 50 years in much of China, has paralyzed transportation, frozen the power grid and caused serious economic losses of about 53.8 billion yuan (7.5 billion U.S. dollars).
The Chinese government has dispatched 251,000 troops to battle the chaos caused by the worst winter in two generations. The PLA's emergency response group also announced 772,000 militia and army reservists were participating in the anti-snow campaign.
Ice on power cables is so thick that it is impossible for the power cables to carry their weight and power pylons have collapsed.
A total of 18,000 tonnes of reserve meat is set to be put into market before Spring Festival to ensure pork supply, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Smooth shipment of vegetables and fruits between north and south will be guaranteed to cool down price hike resulted from the destroyed crops, Deputy Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou said on Friday.
The National Development and Reform Commission asked local authorities to step up price monitoring and curb arbitrary price hike of such basic necessities as instant noodles, biscuit and pure water.
China Meteorological Administration (CMA) on Friday issued an orange alert warning of another day of snowstorm and sleet in the south.
Jiang Liqun, senior manager of central China region of Walmart, said the severity of the disaster has been largely underestimated despite the early alarmings issued by the Hunan meteorological authority. People would not expect a temperature plunge of more than 20 centigrades and a prolonged snow of more than 20 days.
Jiang Hairu, expert with the China Meteorology Society, said although losses resulted from the vile weather is unavoidable, more research on relations between meteorology and disaster reduction could help us cut down economic losses if precautions are taken.
The insurance regulator has ordered all insurance firms on Friday to award compensation as quickly as possible.
Wu Dingfu, head of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), clarified the compensation provision under the wild weather and pressed for more simplified and flexible compensation procedures.
All insurers have received a total of 505,000 claims of compensation from the disaster-hit area as of Jan. 31, and some 350 million yuan (48.6 million U.S. dollars) has been awarded. CIRC predicts the total will exceed 3.5 billion yuan.
Source: Xinhua
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