Record-breaking temperatures and snow-blocked roads hampered evacuation efforts across northern China, where biting cold and blizzards have affected some 1.6 million people and damaged 100,000 homes, meteorological officials said yesterday.
In Xinjiang, blizzards over the weekend and a cold snap that was predicted to hit a record low of minus 43ºC yesterday killed five people, said Pan Jipeng, a spokesman for the Xinjiang Meteorological Station.
“We had advance knowledge so were prepared for the cold front, but it still remains a challenge to evacuate everyone since such cold weather and snow is rare for Xinjiang,” Pan said.
He said 100,000 cattle and other livestock had died and that the bad weather had flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes.
Records from the Xinjiang Meteorological Station showed the first 20 days of this month brought more snow to Xinjiang than for the whole month in all previous years.
More than 150,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the region’s Altay District, where it stopped snowing yesterday morning with nearly 1m of snow on the ground, five times more than the area receives in a normal year, Pan said.
Altay lies in China’s extreme northwestern corner, 2,600km northwest of Beijing, the capital.
Freezing temperatures also hindered fishermen in Shandong Province along the Bohai Sea, which experienced its worst ice coverage in 30 years.
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