The Catastrophic Snow at the Beginning of 2008

At the beginning of 2008, some provinces in South China, East China and Central China such as Guangdong Province, Guizhou Province, Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province and Hubei Province were hit by a catastrophic snow, which lasted more than 20 days. Because of the long-tem snowfall, many crops froze to death; snow ice rendered some state highways very slippery, thus causing serious traffic jams. Millions of residents’ life was enormously affected by the catastrophic snow. It can be said that this catastrophe has done more damage to China than did the inundation in 1998.

The governments at all levels were much concerned with the conditions in those disaster areas. Many government officials went to the disaster areas, where they took part in and directed disaster relief work. Many relief goods and materials such as cotton clothes, quilts and rice were sent to millions of victims of the catastrophe in time so that their life could be guaranteed in winter. In a word, under the correct leadership of our Party Central Committee, we won one victory after another disaster relief work.

The catastrophic snow has given us much food for thought. To be frank, we did well in our disaster relief work, but we did not so well in our preventive measures. Had we worked out in time a contingency plan for the forthcoming snow, the great loss caused by it would have been minimized. The calamity is over, but it should never be forgotten by us. The lessons it has left us are very helpful to our future disaster relief work.