Blackouts, school closures as snowstorms hit NE China

Heavy snowstorms have cut off regional power and water supplies as well as forced schools and highways to close in northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces on Monday.

The ongoing snow and sleet since Sunday has crushed 23 grid lines in the northeastern regions of Heilongjiang, leading to blackouts in the northern and several eastern areas of the province.

Hundreds of thousands of households and at least 18 companies have been affected.

Local authorities have been urgently repairing power lines. Four major power lines were fixed as of 1 p.m., according to Heilongjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. It is unclear when all the repair work will be completed.

A snowstorm has also cut off water supplies in Heilongjiang's city of Hegan. Local meteorological authorities said the storm was the heaviest to hit the city in the past five decades.

The Xinjieji area of the city's Gongnong district and the No. 1 Middle School in Hegang have had no water since early Monday. Blackouts have also brought public transportation to a halt.

The Hegang municipal government has earmarked 10 million yuan (about 1.58 million U.S. dollars) for disaster relief.

Highways and schools have been forced to close in Heilongjiang by the snowstorms.

Continuous snows have caused the closure of at least two highways in the province: one linking Heilongjiang's capital of Harbin with the city of Tongjiang and the other linking the cities of Hegang and Jiamusi, stranding vehicles and passengers.

The snowstorms have prompted provincial authorities to issue an orange alert -- the second-highest alert level in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system -- for Hegang and Jiamusi.

Traffic authorities in Harbin have warned that more vehicles will be stranded, as more snowstorms are expected.

Flights and railway services in the city, which is expected to receive more snow over the next 12 hours, had not been affected as of Monday morning.

Heavy snows have also hit eastern Inner Mongolia since Friday, causing the closure of highways, schools and two local airports. Forty-four houses and more than 170 barns have collapsed, but no human casualties have been reported.

In Jilin province, where heavy snow fell late Sunday, traffic authorities have temporarily imposed traffic control measures on highways, as the frozen roads pose a potential danger to vehicles.

Education authorities in Jilin have urged schools and kindergartens in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas of the province to stop classes until the storms subside.

In an emergency notice issued on Monday, the provincial education department asked primary and middle schools, as well as kindergartens, in flat areas to stop or reschedule classes according to weather conditions.

The National Meteorological Center issued a yellow warning for further snowstorms in northeast China on Monday afternoon.

From 8 p.m. Monday to 8 p.m. Tuesday, heavy snows or storms will hit Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia and northwest Xinjiang, with precipitation of 10 to 15 mm, the center forecast.

It urged citizens to stay indoors and asked local governments to prepare for disaster relief efforts.

While most people have had their lives disrupted by the snowstorms, more than 1,000 Siberian tigers in Harbin's Siberian Tiger Garden were spotted playing in the snow.

Local experts said the tigers feel more comfortable in low temperatures.