Sounds like... 
a lot of fun, eh?
that should read machine gun fire.
How about a few mexicans to help out?
Wonder how much of this will drain into the Three Gorges Dam and what the impact will be. That thing is already a time bomb waiting to happen.
Curiously, they claim that they are able to control the weather to the extent that they will prevent rain from falling on the Olympics next summer.
Were that so, I would think it would be no big deal to stop this current “intemperate weather”.
Back here in the "100 Year Ice Storm" in January of 1998, in New England - we had a bad time of it.
Emergency crews came from across the country to help get us back up and running.
I was without power for 19 days. No furnace, no lights, no refrigeration, NO FLUSH! I was more fortunate than most. I have my wood stove for heat and cooking - and taking a bath in front of in a big galvanized tub. (Quite delightful, actually).
I have my kerosene lamps for light and they also produce a good amount of heat.
I had to transport water from the fire house.
As for food, I always keep certain basics on hand like: the makings for chowder and soups...like canned clams, oysters, corn, tomatoes. I keep a couple jars of chicken and beef paste for making stock - each small jar will make up to 32 qts of stock. I have cocoa powder, sugar, canned milk, coffee, tea - on and on.
Our grocery stores are only stocked with one days supply for the area. In a panic, it will be stripped of staples in a couple hours.
I was raised in the 30's-40's in the north woods with my grandparents. During the ice storm, I thought:"Now if this had happened up on the farm, how would it have affected us?"
hmmm - it really would have had little affect - other than a lot of fire wood would have already been cut, thanks to Mother Nature.
We didn't have electricity. We had a shed full of wood for the stoves. We had our lamps. We had our water pump on the kitchen sink...We had a cellar full of vegetables, barrels of apples, potatoes, pork, beef - shelfs of gleaming jars of vegetables and fruit.
We had fresh milk and butter in the barn, so to speak; eggs and chicken in the hen house.
We would not have been affected for some time - until we ran out of things like flour and sugar. But that could be a couple weeks - by which time, things would likely be under control.
Nowadays, who is prepared to go it 2-3 days!
China's emergency covers an area half the size of this country. What if we had a storm of that magnitude?
WE are far less able to take care of ourselves today that people were 60 years ago.
We need to think about that.
We have put all our eggs in one basket...and if that gets overturned???
Shooting at power lines with machine guns … yes, that will solve the problem. What the ice couldn’t do the bullets will.
Sounds like... a lot of fun, eh?
Maybe the Chi-Coms should drive more SUV’s.
Additional info excerpt follows.
About 33,370 square meters of health facilities, such as hospitals, have collapsed and another 74,461 sq m were in danger of collapsing, according to the ministry.
The Chinese must have some serious construction deficiencies. 8 inches of snow collapsing medical buildings ?
New report from Germany. Snow and Ice has closed Highways in Germany this morning. No word when they reopen.
While it is significant disaster right now, the snow will melt across most of China very soon.
The average low temp. at this time of year in southern China is 14C and the average high is 20C so the snow and ice won’t last long. Temps will return to normal in short order.
You have to ask the question, why does a country that has no missions around the world for their military, such as Iraq, Africa, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc., why do they need 2.3 million troops. Oh, right, to take back Tawain and invade Hawaii.
