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ENTERTAINMENT venues were ordered to close and half of the street lights were turned off across Hunan Province as the local government held an urgent meeting last night to map out an emergency plan to cope with a widespread blackout caused by damaged electricity cables, Xinhua news agency reported today.
Many parts of the cities of Hengyang, Yongzhou, Huaihua and Binzhou were without power as of last night. Hunan has 14 cities.
Among the government's recommendations: hospitals were told to prepare backup power generators; shopping malls and gymnasiums were told to prepare supplies in case residents need to be evacuated from homes; armed police should be on duty around the clock to ensure safety; and fire departments should be on standby alert.
The government also required oil and coal companies to report daily updates on supplies.
Nearly 950 companies were asked to monitor market supplies.
The province has a sufficient supply of food, Changsha Evening Newspaper reported, citing Yi Changlun, deputy director of the province's commercial department.
More than 6,000 kilometers of electricity cables were covered or frozen by snow. Most cables were covered with 50 millimeters of snow, but the cables can only support 30 millimeters of snow.
More than 10,000 employees of the local electricity company have been sent to clear snow off the cables, according to the report.
Three electricity workers were killed when an electricity tower collapsed in the province on Friday. They were honored as Revolutionary Martyrs by the government.
Snowstorms overwhelmed Hunan last week and over the weekend, affecting 30 million people and causing a direct loss of 10.47 billion yuan (US$1.46 billion). More than 255,000 people have been evacuated.
The central government has allocated another 86 million yuan to the province after the first 14 million yuan, according to a previous Xinhua report.
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