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Relief Efforts for Snow-trapped Herdsmen Continues
The governments of Xinjiang and Altay are doing their best to ship relief materials to villagers stranded by heavy snow in northern Xinjiang.
Altay, with an area of 117,000 sq. km., is the largest farming area of Xinjiang. The region had 4.8 million heads of livestock last year. Currently, 47 villages in the area are enveloped by heavy snow believed to be the heaviest in Altay for 50 years. The depth of the snow has reached 70 centimeters on the lowland and 2. 5 meters in mountainous areas.
The blizzards have frozen two herdsmen to death and damaged 3, 000 houses. The life of 95,000 residents has been affected.
More than 1,000 km of highways are covered with thick snow. Some 2,200 motor vehicles have been stranded on roads, tying up 30, 000 passengers.
The local governments have sent 600 medical workers and distributed 18,000 tons of relief grain and 460,000 yuan worth of daily necessities to the afflicted areas.
Officials at township level made door-to-door visits, sending quilts, fuel and clothing to villagers.
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