Traveler shares harrowing account of China's deadly ice storm
If you've payed attention at all to international news the past few days, you know parts of China are pretty much frozen solid right now. At least 63 people have died because of the storm, as many as 800,000 travelers were at one time stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station trying to get home. It's the worst winter storm that country has seen in 50 years, and more snow is predicted in the next week.
But the tragedy and hardship of the disaster is hard to grasp until you hear a first-hand tale of survival.
Our friend Ash Sutcliffe over at China Car Times tipped us off to their translation of a forum post at a popular Chinese car site from a Chinese traveler and his efforts to get home. We can't verify the story and didn't have any luck contacting the author, but if true, it's a long but worthy read.
The unnamed writer discovers his route home is shut down due to ice, but is overjoyed to find his alternate route mostly clear and safe. Until a few hours after sunset, when his car begins to slide and his brakes do nothing but vibrate from the ABS trying to do its job. One of several "goods trucks" stops his slide, but luckily he's ok. But his relief is short lived as a a woman grabs him and they, and drivers of the other wrecked cars run to leap behind barriers in the median just as another group of cars plows into the highway pileup. "In between the barriers there was an empty space. Some guy fell down the hole and was shouting for help, he was shouting like a mad man. I ran to the barriers to have a look, then realised, the road is actually a bridge over a river."
Read the translation at China Car Times for heartbreaking accounts of people trapped in crushed cars, one child lost in the cold darkness and another dead on the side of the road. Let's hope China thaws out soon and that we never have to endure such tragedy.
[Source: xcar.cn via China Car Times]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Andy 4:21PM (2/03/2008)
paid
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Austin 4:26PM (2/03/2008)
And people wonder why communism doesnt work. Cinton-Obama take note.
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clevershark 4:33PM (2/03/2008)
I couldn't help but say "holy sh*^" when I saw that first photo. I'm not used to seeing a car's crumple zone include the entire passenger compartment.
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info 11:37AM (2/04/2008)
An economy growing at over 10%. Maybe all of the presidential candidates should take note because that is a hell of a lot better than what the US has to offer. On the other hand, I have no clue what this has to do with ice storms, or are you trying to say that this, and pile ups on the roads never happens in the US?
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RJ 4:37PM (2/03/2008)
And you must be a perfect example of just how bright and intelligent people are under imperialism.
Honest, can you make an intelligent comment without posting some political BS? WTF does accidents from an icestorm have to do with communism? Do you even know the meaning of real communism? Just so you know people there are allowed to own property, run a business, etc...
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macdoc 4:51PM (2/03/2008)
Dam Global Warming!
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JD 5:25PM (2/03/2008)
Not to belittle any of these tragic events, but I think maybe Austin was trying to reference how Katrina was handled much more spectacularly. Wish everyone the best during their important time of year.
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Austin 5:30PM (2/03/2008)
It means their inferstructure is not up to a capitalist, they have millions of people that are living in the dark, and it is supposed to be that way for a week or more. They have no road clearing equipment so they accidents happen. Come on people around a 1000 people a year die in their mines. They kill and torture people all the time. And it does go to the Dems, just today Clinton said that people that would not want to have universal healthcare would have their wages cut, so the gov. copuld take it without their permission. She wants to force people to pay. If that isnt communism, i dont know what it is.
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Ed 5:43PM (2/03/2008)
Road building, maintenance and policing in the "west" are public services, funded through taxes, in the same way a public health service would be, so your argument seems kind of flawed.
Maybe they should have salted the roads a bit better or had a go slow warning. Don't think this is sufficient reason for regime change.
Roderick 5:53PM (2/03/2008)
Austin:
Exactly, you don't know what Communism is.
China does have a very spotty infrastructure, economic inequality there is staggeringly high (though still not as high as the United States, which has some of the most dramatic disparities in the world), their coal mines are the most deadly in the world, the government is very secretive and often oppressive. However.
None of those things are attributable to the fact that the government is Communist, only that it is not sufficiently accountable for its actions. It has to do with very inconsistent development - rapid in the cities and nonexistent in rural areas. It has to do with corruption, eagerness to catch up to Western powers, and money. It has a lot to do with the influence of your beloved capitalism.
The Chinese government failed to rectify the railroad situation at the first chance. But history demonstrates time and again that the strong centralized system of government there is one of the best in the world at mobilizing massive amounts of work to fix things at incredible speed. This is one advantage of a central authority - no discussion about cost, no votes, no initiatives or debates - it just gets done immediately.
This was not a fault of the system, just poor execution. No system is better suited to deal with disasters than a strong central government.
So before you stumble over yourself insulting the "commies" and how terrible they are and how they let their people die, consider figuring out what you're blathering about.
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Seoultrain 3:06AM (2/04/2008)
lol yeah, China sucks at communism.
Big Bad Sedan 6:10PM (2/03/2008)
Is that bundle of black sheet metal in the picture a POS Chery?
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zmf001 8:26PM (2/03/2008)
Looks like a Mk3 VW Vento (Jetta) to me ...
With that much damage it could be anything.
Pat 6:18PM (2/03/2008)
WOW! That' pretty heavy --both the crashes and the comments above re: communism.
I wonder if Mr. Wang was at the wheel of a Chinese car this time around.
For those who don't remember, Mr. Wang is the gentlemen, who after having an accident with his Mercedes, vowed only to drive Chinese automobiles.
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Austin 6:52PM (2/03/2008)
give me a break, a more centralized gov. is not as good as one that isnt. An electric company controling power, water company , etc. is better. They would have all there utilities running faster than the gov doing it. it would take them 2 days, not 7 or more. When the gov controls these utilies, they brake more easily because they gov has to repair them ove a big space. A electice company only controls a small area, and then there is competition which only makes them want to repair them faster. In communism, theres only 1 and you have no say about it. If you complain the government will put you on a probation list and if you dont stop complaining they will put you in jail. And again when the gov outsources road management to companies the roads get cleared faster because companies have to answer to someone, a comm. government does not.
oh and you can only have one kid, bet Clinton would love that, less global warming.
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Roderick 3:43AM (2/04/2008)
Hilary, China's one-child policy and global warming have hardly anything in common and more importantly nothing to do with a blizzard. Except maybe global warming.
Companies answer to nobody. They answer to money. Your assertion that corporations would move quicker than a central government are misinformed at best.
First, consider that our "wonderful" capitalist system in America has encouraged and facilitated vast consolidation of corporations of all kinds, including utilities. So they face the same geographical considerations faced by a single central government.
Furthermore, consider that a strong centralized government does not mean that there is no auxiliary control, merely that orders that come from the top are followed at the bottom, much like in the military. The increased area has no bearing on its effectiveness.
The reason a government like we have in the U.S. is often slow and wasteful is because it has been bureaucratized. I am not saying this is bad; bureaucracy exists to prevent corruption. When rules and laws are exhaustive and cover all conceivable situations, and all government decisions are a matter of public record, and the public is free to challenge and debate said decisions, it reduces the likelihood of corruption. However, this complex system is slow and cumbersome, and does not respond quickly to much of anything.
Evidence that centralizing power is crucial to effective management of crisis situations is even present in the U.S. government. In times of dire need, the government has the power to compel military service, to impose martial law, to bypass the bureaucracy and scrutiny to which everyday operations are subjected. This is because if there is a time of national crisis, it is easier to get things sorted when there is one clear order for everyone than hundreds of suggestions and ideas from various heads of this and that and what have you.
In a country with a population of well over 1.2 billion, chaos ensues rapidly with a breakdown as occurred with the rail system. China needed to mobilize troops and police to maintain order, an action that surely would have seemed heavy-handed in most Western countries. But regardless of the relative merits, it is effective. With the numbers of people crowded in a small place (at one point upwards of 800,000 in the train station in Guangzhou), it is rather amazing that only one death has resulted from stampeding. I don't know that 800,000 people have ever gathered in such a small area in the history of the United States.
Beyond the debate about freedom or the behavior of the Chinese government (which frankly, I find abhorrent in the area of human rights - but the U.S. is not that great either), my point was that the TYPE of system in China is better suited to deal with these kinds of situations, and that this case represents a failure to act, not a failure in design.
Dad 7:08PM (2/03/2008)
"The unnamed writer discovers his route home is shut down due to ice"
And he kept on trying? Nice to know that stupidity is universal.
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BEN 8:25PM (2/03/2008)
Worst winter storm in 50 years ??? Naaaaaa ...... it cannot be because Gore says we have global warming??
Send good 'ol Al the Global warming guru over there and he will warm it up .
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LeRobert 8:32PM (2/03/2008)
You should note that China is only communistic in name only since two decades ago; in certain aspects, one can argue that some markets are more capitalistic than those of America. This rapid change to unregulated capitalism, where everyone is trying to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time is the root of the serious problems concerning China's exports: disrespect for intellectual property, poisonous foods, toxic toys, etc. These problems are examples of capitalism at its worst.
I'm certainly not professing that any one economic system is better than the others, because they each have their flaws. I'm merely hoping that you are more informed before you make such a one-sided argument.
The only reason that the storms in China are wrecking such havoc is that the government failed to act quickly. As Hurricane Katrina clearly demonstrated, any government may be susceptible to this failure of judgement.
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LeRobert 8:35PM (2/03/2008)
My previous post was meant as a reply to Austin. I don't know why the reply button isn't working.
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