The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Beijing

Emergency crews rushed to restore electricity to parts of southern China damaged by unusually heavy snows, and forecasters said Friday that new storms could lash the area next week.

In the midst of Lunar New Year festivities - the nation's biggest holiday of the year - Beijing sought to show that its emergency relief operations were bringing normalcy to central and southern provinces hard hit by a month of recurring snow and ice storms.

As of midday Thursday, work crews had reconnected nearly two-thirds of the 6,774 electrical lines cut during the storms and were repairing the remaining downed lines, according to a notice posted on the Web site of the State Council, China's Cabinet. Emergency shipments of 400,000 tons of potatoes, onions, turnips and other food and vegetables headed off potentially inflationary shortages, the statement said. "In some areas, the price of meat and vegetables even went lower," it said.