Snowstorm cuts traffic into Tibet

2008-10-29  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AT least two people are missing and roads have been blocked by heavy snow which began to fall on Sunday in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Armed police are struggling to clear roads to restore traffic, particularly on the Sichuan-Tibet road, which has been blanketed by snow along 160 kilometers.

Snow drifts on the roads were up to 1 meter deep, local authorities said.

The storm caused a power cut across Bomi County. About 60 people and 20 vehicles were stranded on a road from Bomi to Medog County.

A Medog county official said two stranded people went missing after they attempted to leave on their own.

Some areas that were first hit by rain and then snow reported falls of up to 57 mm between 8am on Sunday and 8am on Monday.

Tibet's regional weather observatory claimed yesterday the snowstorm was the worst of the kind since weather records began.

Snow was forecast to fall across most parts of Tibet, and has worsened the situation in the zones hit by the October 6 earthquake, said officials.

Temperatures in Damxung, an outer county in Lhasa, the regional capital, and also the worst-hit area by the 6.6-magnitude quake this month, dropped below 0 degrees Celsius.

Civil affairs departments in the plateau region were busy sending relief materials such as tents and foodstuffs to quake zones in Lhasa, as well as those in Xigaze and Shannan, two other areas bordering Lhasa, said Ren Hongru, an official with the relief operation section of the civil affairs bureau of Tibet.

The Tibet autonomous regional government has allocated 9.2 million yuan (US$1.31 million) in emergency relief fund for quake survivors in Tibet.

Relief materials sent to quake zones in Lhasa, Xigaze and Shannan include 2,430 tents and 2,120 cotton quilts, said Ren.