Disasters caused by prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow in the southern part of China in the past month killed 107 people and left eight others missing as of Tuesday, Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said in Beijing on Wednesday.

Direct economic loss was estimated at 111.1 billion yuan (about US$15.3 billion), he added at a national video conference on disaster relief.

Altogether, 21 provincial-level areas have been affected. About 1.5 million people have been evacuated, and 1.93 million stranded passengers have been transported out.

The extreme weather affected nearly 24.4 million hectares of farmland and led to the collapse of about 354,000 houses.

Seven provinces -- Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang and Sichuan -- and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were the worst-hit areas.

The snow snarl, the worst in five decades, and even in a century in a few areas, caused death, structural collapse, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop loss in the country's eastern, central and southern regions for about a month.

As power supplies, coal reserves and traffic were getting back to normal, and prices remain relatively stable in disaster-hit areas, Li warned "the current disaster-relief work is still at a crucial stage," and "the hardest time has far from gone by".

As the temperature rises, disasters induced by thawing snow and ice, such as geological disasters and environmental pollution, might occur, which might further aggregate losses, he said.

In some remote and mountainous areas, including Hubei, Jiangxi and Guizhou, electricity supply, traffic and telecom in many villages have not been restored. Some people were still suffering from water supply difficulties and living necessity shortages, Li said.

Despite grain storage, many households were without rice due to a lack of electricity to run their grinding machines.

Li said the ministry would intensify its disaster relief work to deal with the impact of the harsh weather and accelerate the rebuilding of destroyed houses and do more to organize the donation of winter clothes and quilts.

"The rebuilding of collapsed houses should be completed by the end of June," Li said.

The ministries of civil affairs and finance have allocated a total of 535 million yuan (US$73.79 million) in emergency funding to 19 provincial-level regions affected by the disaster.

The two ministries have so far earmarked another 710 million yuan for needy urban and rural residents in seven of the worst-hit provinces and regions as temporary subsidies, Li said.

The ministry has helped procure 1.99 million cotton-padded coats and quilts for the disaster-hit areas. In joint efforts with the armed forces, it has utilized nine helicopters to air-drop 43 tons of relief supplies to the southwest Sichuan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

By Tuesday, Chinese citizens had donated about 1.2 billion yuan (US$165.5 million) in cash and relief supplies to the disaster-stricken areas, according to Li. Seven worst-hit provinces and regions, including Hunan Province, have received donations worth 893 million yuan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered all of the country's military forces to continue to support the reconstruction work in disaster-hit areas.

By February 11, China's troops had sent 6.43 million soldiers and officers and 18.69 million militia to help reconstruction.

By Monday, the military and armed police forces had donated 123million yuan and 15 million items, including winter clothes.

At Wednesday's executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, the State Council, China's cabinet, warned local governments and departments concerned not to relax themselves in disaster relief, demanding them to organize manpower, materials and funds in a scientific way and make plans, arrangements and start-ups quickly.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)