Heavy snow and icy rain are continuing to sweep east and south China, disrupting traffic, closing airports, cutting water and power supplies, and causing havoc for ordinary Chinese.

Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, has been closed since 4:30 a.m. Thursday because of snow since Tuesday. About 400 flights have been canceled. In parts of the province, the snow is more than 22 cm deep.

Continuous heavy snow and freezing rain have been falling in the southwest municipality of Chongqing since Monday. By Thursday morning, the city's Zhoubai Airport was closed because of ice on the runway.

The Chongqing Meteorological Center Thursday forecast that the snow and rain will continue till at least Friday.

Snow and sleet have swept provincial level areas, including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Guangxi, Chongqing, Guizhou and Yunnan, since Monday.

In Yunnan, the freezing weather has disrupted the operations of power transformer substations and transmission lines in eight cities. The ice on the lines was more than 21 mm thick in parts.

"To ensure an orderly Spring Festival travel period and power supply, electricity company staff are rushing to repair ice covered lines," said Liao Zelong, general manager of the Yunnan branch of China Southern Power Grid.

Sections of the Nanchang-Jiujiang expressway in Jiangxi Province were closed and a traffic jam of up to 20 km had formed in Jiujiang city. Traffic along expressways in Guizhou and Anhui provinces was slowed due to slippery roads, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) forecast most regions in south and east China will see more ice and snow in the coming three days.

Snow storms or blizzards will hit Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang in the 24 hours from 2 p.m. Thursday.

The Ministry of Public Security Wednesday held a teleconference, urging police in affected areas to prevent major traffic accidents and keep traffic moving.

The heavy snow and freezing rain cut power supplies to more than 50,000 households in 178 villages in east China's Zhejiang Province Wednesday evening.

After around-the-clock emergency repairs, electricity supply to 21,975 households in 54 villages was restored Thursday morning.

The Zhejiang provincial meteorological bureau Thursday repeatedly warned of road freezing. Although most expressways in the province are operating normally, police are limiting the number of vehicles driving on them, especially mini-buses and trucks carrying hazardous cargo.

The unexpected continuous freezing weather is also severely testing people's daily life, making some citizens nervous.

Some Changsha citizens have rushed to buy daily necessities such as vegetables, rice and edible oil at supermarkets in the city in east China's Hunan Province.

After the heaviest snowfall in Changsha for forty years, the municipal government has taken emergency measures to ensure power supply and price stability for daily necessities.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2011)