China counts cost of snowy winter chaos

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - Brutal winter weather across China on Monday stranded hundreds of thousands of people and choked energy flows, claiming a rising human and economic toll that pummeled local stock prices ahead of Chinese New Year.

At least 24 people had died in two weeks of accidents due to snow, sleet and freezing cold across central, eastern and southern China, regions used to milder winters, Xinhua news agency said.

Many highways, railways and airports were paralyzed, especially in the east, with officials in Hunan, Jiangsu and other provinces calling the snow and cold the worst in decades, and snow and sleet were set to continue into Tuesday.

The bad weather has hit as tens of millions of Chinese head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, starting on February 7 this year, a human tide that strains transport at the best of times.

China also counted the economic cost from stalled production and shipping and the power brownouts across more than half the nation's 31 provinces. The main Shanghai stock index plunged 7.19 percent, its fourth biggest drop this decade, as investors added the weather woes to gloom about inflation and the global economy.

"This is like another SARS outbreak, which temporarily blocks bloodflow in the economy and causes short-term pain," said Gu Lingyun, fund manager at Orient Securities, referring to the epidemic that panicked China in 2003.

"The snow also calls into question whether the government can successfully tame inflation."

The winter chaos comes at a time when China is anxious to show the outside world its transport network and infrastructure are up to the task of hosting the summer Olympics in August.

China's Communist Party ordered a mobilization of its more than 70 million members to help offset the impact of the heavy snow, and the government will allocate a percentage of membership dues for disaster relief, Xinhua reported.

TRAIN HAVOC

For millions of Chinese workers, the pressing worry is making it back to homes and villages for Lunar New Year celebrations.

Flights at dozens of regional airports have been reduced to a snail's pace or stopped completely. Icebound highways throughout central and eastern provinces have been closed.

At the main rail station in Guangzhou, in the relatively warm commercial far south, 170,000 people crammed together waiting for trains that cannot leave because of electric trains stranded down the line, Xinhua reported.

By the end of Monday, a backlog of 600,000 waiting for trains from the city was expected. Television showed green-uniformed anti-riot troops ready to keep order around the station.

"I've been here in Guangzhou for close to 10 years and have never seen anything like this before," said Song Zhigang, waiting for a train to Wuhan in central China.