Snowstorm Victims Relieved

The fiercest snowstorms in fifty years wreaked havoc in Central and Southern China around the Lunar New Year Festival. Millions of people traveling home for the festival were stranded after travel routes were blocked. With 1.7 million evacuees the storm has made more people temporarily homeless than Hurricane Katrina, according to international reports.

Mainly due to interrupted railway services, energy supply lines were disrupted as well. This caused a rising energy shortage in more than half of the country. In the affected regions coal and other fuel could not be delivered for several weeks. Drinking water also became scarce because pipes were frozen. In the hardest hit areas people were cut off from any kind of information because there was not even enough electricity to recharge cell phone batteries, much less for television.

Tan Hua, a member of the Amity staff, hands out warm quilts to a farmer in Guizhou, after the fiercest snowstorm in fifty years wreaked havoc in Central and Southern China in early 2008.

The storm has caused most damage where people are not used to cold temperatures or big amounts of snow and ice. Amity responded by sending staff and relief supplies to the city of Majiang in Guizhou Province. This city had never seen a snow disaster of this extent in its recorded history. Amity has provided RMB 150,000 of urgent rescue funds along with 1000 warm blankets.

Amity staffers Tan Hua and Cao Hui went to Jingyang Xiang, a remote village in the vicinity of Majiang, to distribute much awaited blankets and thermal underwear. “The road went up two very steep slopes and was covered with ice, ” says Tan Hua, “and people were afraid that the car wouldn’t make it all the way, so we used shoulder poles to carry the stuff up the mountain.” When they arrived, a crowd of people was already waiting in front of the village committee house. “We also brought material to homes far away and to those who could not walk,” says Tan Hua.

Meanwhile, Tan Hua and Cao Hui found out that one of Amity’s biogas projects had unexpectedly become a factor in disaster relief. 300 farmers who had been provided by Amity with biogas systems remained independent of dwindling power supplies during the snow disaster. The lights went out in many households during blackouts – but theirs did not.

Amity will help with rehabilitation work in Majiang. The reconstruction of houses above 60 square meters which have collapsed under the snow will be supported. Amity will also help to replace damaged greenhouses to minimize the financial loss of the peasants. Farmers who have lost their animals because of the cold or whose stables were destroyed will receive financial help from Amity as well.

Over RMB 2 million have been donated by national and international donors and organizations. The money is used to reduce in impact of the disaster on people in Guizhou and Hunan. We would like to thank all our donors who have contributed to relieving the hardship of people in the snowstorm-affected areas.