Deadly cold waves continue in China's Xinjiang

Heavy snow and deadly cold waves gripping the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China have killed four people and almost 40,000 livestock.

The latest figures show that around 16,000 houses have been destroyed. The number of people affected has risen to nearly one million.

Also, more than 92,000 folks have been evacuated from the rural areas because their houses were either flattened or damaged by the snowstorms or their neighborhoods were threatened by potential avalanches or food and water shortages.

Direct economic losses have been estimated at 320 mn yuan ($47 mn), the regional government announced late Monday.

Altay, the area worst hit by continuous blizzards since late December, has been reeling under the heaviest snow in 10 years. The area is expecting a drastic drop in temperature and severe blizzards, as weather forecasters predict temperatures to dip to as low as -42 C in the next few days, the regional meteorological station said.

"The current temperature in the Altay area is between -25 C to -36 C. The snow has stopped except in some remote mountain areas where there are no people or livestock," the director of the Altay region's information office told the China Daily on Monday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116492§ionid=351020404.