(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-19 21:31

A working team sent by the Chinese government to Chenzhou has found after investigation that the wide power blackout was caused by snow and ice accumulation during the worst snow havoc in five decades.

"Many of the electric wire poles are coked with 50-60 mm of ice, which fracture easily in the below-zero temperature," said Zeng Lijun, engineer-in-chief with the Chenzhou Power Corp.

The grid repair work in Hunan has received 40 million yuan (US$ 5 million) of funding from the central government. It is urgently in need of 5,000 tons of steel products to prop up the damaged power lines, said Huang Qiang, a local power official.

He expected that normal power supply across the province would not be resumed until the end of March.

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