Dark start to Year of the Rat for Chinese

More 4 million people were still without power yesterday in storm-battered central China, as families nationwide began gathering for the biggest holiday of the year.

The worst winter storms in half a century knocked out power to large sections of the country's temperate central and eastern regions, disrupting rail and road connections.

A massive nationwide campaign to restore transport and bring aid to affected areas has allowed many families to celebrate the holiday with feasts, firecrackers and visits to neighbors.

But in Chenzhou, a city of about 4.5 million people, the scene was anything but festive, as residents endured a 13th day without power or running water.

State broadcaster CCTV said crews -- including People's Liberation Army engineering troops -- reconnected the city to the Hunan provincial power grid early yesterday, and power would return for some residents beginning last night.

The military was shipping an additional 4 million candles to the city and other affected parts of Hunan, Guizhou and Jiangxi provinces, Xinhua news agency said.

"The whole city is still without power," said an operator reached at Chenzhou's information hot line.

"Our center has power only because we have our own generator," he said, refusing to give his name.

Calls to other city government offices rang unanswered.

Residents hotels, karaoke parlors and public baths in the city were filled with people driven from their homes by freezing temperatures and lack of water.

Prices soared for many consumer goods, cash supplies have run short, and only one city hospital was still operating with power from its own diesel generator, they said.

At the city's five-star Huatian Hotel, all 300 rooms were taken, mostly by local families paying the full 668 yuan (US$93) nightly rate, a receptionist said. Generators were providing 16 to 20 hours of electricity per day, he said.

"People have no heat or water so they're coming here," said the receptionist, who declined to give his name, citing company policy.

Another at the downtown Yuquan Hotel said generators there were able to supply electricity around the clock, although hot water remained limited. He said all 218 rooms were filled, mostly with area residents.

"We still have received no word on when power will be restored," he said.

Temperatures Chenzhou were expected to fall to below freezing today.

Cold, exhausted residents stood in long lines for water and gasoline and washed vegetables and clothes in water from fire hydrants. Many shops were closed and prices of food, candles and charcoal briquettes used for heating and cooking had shot up -- quadrupling in some cases -- because of shortages, residents said.

The remote township of Weng-xiang in the snowy mountains of Guizhou hasn't had electricity since Jan. 14.

Residents have to negotiate steep, icy paths to fetch water in buckets because pipes are frozen or cracked.

"At night, it's like a blanket of darkness," said resident Pan Zhengkai, adding that families ate their dinner at 4pm before darkness set in.

"I guess we'll have to have the new year celebrations in darkness." he said. "We can't afford candles."

"The biggest problem has been keeping the children warm at night," said farmer Ye Xiaoling in the farming and manganese mining area of Wanshan in the Guizhou prefecture of Tongren, which has also been without power since January.

"Our problem is that our homes and everything else are not used to such cold," she said.