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PRC travelers upset over late emergency response

"It wasn't until Premier Wen came that people were sent on to streets to clean off the snow. They stopped once the big leader left."

Li Xiangxiang, Changsha resident

Many of the millions of Chinese hit hardest by a run of severe weather are venting their anger at what they see as an inept government response that was too little, too late.

Official propaganda has painted a picture of a heroic response to weeks of deadly cold and subsequent transport paralysis.

But people in this stressed-out city in central Hunan Province say the government fiddled as the situation mounted, contributing to the crisis.

"If the [local government] had moved in a timely manner to get rid of the ice and snow on the highways, the traffic might not have been cut off completely like this," said Huang Qiuhua, one of thousands of travelers stranded in the city's train station after his train was canceled.

The worst winter weather in five decades has caused power outages and transport gridlock just as millions were trying to return to home provinces for new year holidays.

The freeze began on Jan. 10 but it took the government until this week to take drastic steps such as mobilizing the army to help relief efforts.

Such delays made a mockery of past vows -- made after such crises as the 2003 SARS respiratory disease outbreak -- to improve emergency response systems, said Huang, 35.

"The emergency response system they claim has been built up after the SARS crisis appears to be not working very efficiently," said Huang, a businessman who was trying to return home to southern Guangdong Province.

"Official weather forecasts also have been inaccurate and that's one of the main reasons for the poor reaction by the government," he said.

China's state media provided lavish coverage of Premier Wen Jiabao's (溫家寶) trip earlier this week to Hunan and Guangdong provinces, where he apologized to stranded travelers and played up response efforts.

But Li Xiangxiang, a 23-year-old employee in a Changsha bookstore, echoed the sentiments of many in branding the visit a cynical propaganda stunt.

"It wasn't until Premier Wen came that people were sent on to streets to clean off the snow. They stopped once the big leader left," she said while shopping for suddenly scarce vegetables. "[Local authorities] should have prepared for such situations earlier and not wait until the premier came."

Changsha and other areas of Hunan have been hit particularly hard by the extreme weather, which has wrecked the travel plans of tens of thousands of people.
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