BEIJING - Three weeks of crippling snowstorms across China have inflicted US$7.5 billion in damages, the government said Friday, as it announced a $700 million relief fund for farmers.
The freakish weather -- the country's worst in five decades -- has paralyzed China's densely populated central and eastern regions just as tens of millions of travelers were seeking to board trains and buses to return home for this month's Lunar New Year.
The storms have killed at least 60 people, closed roads, disabled the rail system, destroyed crops and exacerbated a coal shortage, forcing power plants to shut down and factories to cut production.
At a news conference to discuss the government's response to the storms, Zou Ming, deputy director of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said the storms had caused $7.5 billion in damages.
As the toll of the damage became clear, the central bank announced on its Web site it would "urgently create a 5 billion yuan ($700 million) farm support account, focusing on helping disaster lending by small institutions in disaster areas."
Commercial banks were ordered to "create a seasonal lending plan as soon as possible" to help farmers in disaster areas, it said.
Regions hit by the storms provide the bulk of China's winter fruit and vegetables, and Chen Xiwen, a top agricultural official, said Thursday the impact of the weather on produce in some places had been "catastrophic."
Train service was returning to normal, but hundreds of thousands of travelers remained stranded Friday in Guangzhou, where the transport meltdown wreaked the most havoc, as the city's millions of migrant workers tried to leave for the New Year's holiday.
Officials kept would-be travelers father away from the station in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong in southern China, apparently for safety reasons. Most were massed on six-lane streets that have been closed to traffic.
The government has been urging them to cancel their travel plans. Some such as Hu Jiansing, a 25-year-old plastics factory worker, were taking a wait-and-see attitude.
"I decided I would come and check out the situation first, and then decide whether I will refund my ticket and try to go home later," said Hu, who hopes to go to Hubei in central China.
Over the course of this week, a total of 5.8 million passengers were stranded throughout the railway system, said Zhao Chunlei, deputy director of the Regulation Department of the Ministry of Railways.
The transport delays have also caused a severe coal shortage, and Zhao told reporters the railways would focus on delivering coal and restoring the capacity of trunk lines over the next 10 days.
The shortage of coal, used to fuel three-quarters of China's electricity supply, caused widespread blackouts.
"The power grid network has also been greatly damaged," said Zou of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Huge cities have plunged into darkness, with parts of Chenzhou, a city of 1.2 million in central Hunan province, without power for eight days.
Photos posted on the Xinhua News Agency's Web site and taken Thursday night showed blocks of buildings plunged into darkness, their rooftops covered in snow. The only lights were those of trucks on the street.
State-run radio said Chenzhou was like a "deserted island," with its shops closed and goods scarce. Fire trucks were distributing water to residents because pumps stopped working, China Central Television said. It said reserves of diesel fuel in the city would run out in seven days and rice in five.
The power shortages have been blamed on a government freeze imposed on electricity prices in September in an effort to cool inflation. The freeze prompted utilities to curb losses by purchasing less coal, the price of which has risen to record highs in recent weeks.
The storm's effects are likely to do little long-term damage to China's overall economy. But they have cast a spotlight on the weaknesses of the country's infrastructure, which has failed to keep up with growth that has topped 10 percent for five straight years, hitting 11.2 percent in 2007.
Chinese stocks fell Friday on worries over the impact of disruptions caused by the severe weather.
Zhu Hongren, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission -- the country's top economic planning body -- said the disaster had taken a toll on China's economy, but that it would be only short term.
"The economic fundamentals of the Chinese economy are still sound, and I believe the momentum of fairly rapid and steady growth of the Chinese economy will continue," he said.
But more bad weather was forecast, with snow still falling in four central and eastern provinces.
