Military plays pivotal role in snow disaster relief

Source: Xinhua | 02-06-2008 12:49

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's military and armed police forces have contributed 568,000 person/times by Monday evening to the combat against the nation's worst winter storms in five decades, the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said here Tuesday.

Military plays pivotal role in snow disaster relief.

By Monday evening, the reserve forces also contributed 1.79 million person/times to the disaster relief work.

Some 34,000 military vehicles, 50 pieces of special equip men were mobilized, and military planes flew more than 50 missions, a special coordination office set up at the department said.

Exhausted soldiers assuage thirst by eating snow.

The military forces have helped clean 17,000 km of highways, evacuate 4.38 million people and ship two million tons of relief material.

In Tongren city of southwestern Guizhou Province, more than 1,000 soldiers are de-icing the 2-km-long airport runway.

Tongren airport is one of the only two airports in China that are still closed. The standstill has lasted for 23 days.

"It is a really tough task. The ice covering the runway is 13 cm thick. To protect the runway, no big machine can be used," said Zhu Xiulin, general manager of the airport.

The soldiers had to de-ice the surface by spade.

"Eight spades were allocated to our squad but soon three were broken," said Xie Linhong, a 18-year-old soldier working on the runway.

With the temperature at three degrees Celsius below zero, the soldiers were working so hard that their uniforms were soaked with sweat.

More than 180 generals are working on the front line of disaster relief.