Power is expected back by the end of March for many lucky Chinese citizens:

China’s snow-hit Zhejiang Province expects to restore its trunk power grid at the end of March as industrial electricity demand will soar after the Spring Festival holiday, the provincial power grid company said.

Consecutive weeks of snow since mid January collapsed 12,753 pylons and damaged 9,946 meters of power transmission lines and 22transformer substations in the eastern province.

In total, 1.83 million homes in nine cities were affected and 8,753 villages suffered power cuts after snow destroyed power supply facilities.

During the Spring Festival holiday that started on Feb. 6, more than 30,000 technicians from the province’s power companies have been working to repair the ice-damaged power grid. Electricity has been restored to 95 percent of the homes that had suffered blackouts.

Despite the efforts, electricity was still unavailable in 628 villages of six towns where rugged terrain hindered the transport of heavy repair equipment and other materials.

“The province is stepping up efforts to restore its 500 kv (kilovolt) trunk power grid,” said a provincial power grid company spokesman. “However, it is most complicated to repair 500 kv power lines because workers have to erect iron towers weighing many tons in the mountains.”

And there’s more snow coming:

More snowy weather was forecast for parts of China in the coming days, threatening to snarl transport at the height of holiday travel and hampering the country’s efforts to return to normality after its worst winter in decades.

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The travel crunch comes as China’s transport systems are only just creaking back to life after freak cold and ice storms hit swathes of the country, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing at least 80 people.

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Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City warned that global warming might “kill everybody.”

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From the BBC, there is an article on this year’s exceptionally harsh Afghan winter:

Officially 800 people have died, but many more will no doubt have frozen to death when the snow fell heavier and the temperatures dropped lower than anybody expected.

Many were caught outside during a sudden change in the weather.

Ahmad is 18 and he is lying in one of eight beds in a ward at Herat hospital. Everyone there is suffering from frostbite, and some are groaning in agony.

You can see the pain on Ahmad’s face as he tries to move himself onto one side – learning to move himself now without his legs, as both have been amputated below the knee and are bandaged.

“I thought I was going to die in the snow,” he says. He is a shepherd and was out in the fields with the animals when the blizzard caught him.

“The cold has taken away my legs, and look at my hands – I have lost my fingers.”

He was trapped for six days and six nights without any shelter. His brother Abrahim, who’s 20, was sent to look for him, but now he lies in the next bed, his legs also claimed by frostbite.

Watching over them is their father, Said Mohammad Sultanzai.

He is more than 40 years old and has never seen anything like it. His uncle, who is much older, says winter has never been as bad.

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