China's not-so-happy New Year

Mon, 02/04/2008 - 5:54pm

In one of the biggest annual movements of humanity, about 200 million Chinese make roughly 2.2 billion trips over the Lunar New Year holiday. This year, Jack Frost made a guest appearance, causing massive travel delays, damaging key infrastructure, and disrupting coal shipments to power plants. 

How does China's winter disaster stack up against Hurricane Katrina? Here's a look: 

 
Fatalities 60 1,353
Damage $7.5 billion $96 billion
Evacuees 1.7 million 1.1 million
Homes damaged or destroyed Over 1 million 300,000
Official visits PM Wen Jiabao to Guangzhou Bush to New Orleans
Industries affected coal oil & gas
Power supply 17 of 31 provinces in brownouts 2.5 million without power
Troops Deployed 500,000 soldiers, 1.6 million paramilitary  50,000 National Guard Troops

Photos: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images; ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

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