As of midnight Friday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of
China had deployed 306,000 soldiers to combat the effects of the
snow in the southern parts of the country, a military source
said.
About 1.07 million militia and army reservists were
participating in the weather relief effort, the PLA's emergency
response group told Xinhua.
The PLA currently has 2.3 million troops.
More than 100 aircraft and helicopters remained on standby, air
force sources said.
Two AN-26 transport planes flew to the southwestern province of
Guizhou in the early hours of Saturday, carrying 5.5 tons of relief
material and equipment including food, medicine and quilt.
Military vehicles such as field kitchen trucks and armored cars
played an important role in de-icing and rescue missions.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, about 1,500 soldiers helped
maintain order in its train station.
Soldiers of the Hubei Military Area in central China helped
local police to restore a 28-km section of the Beijing-Zhuhai
Expressway, the country's key north-south trunk road, which had
been closed by dangerous icing. Those efforts helped more than
6,000 vehicles and 12,000 stranded riders continue their
journeys.
The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been
falling in China's eastern, central and southern regions for more
than a fortnight. It has caused deaths, structural collapses,
blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop
destruction.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2008)