Heavy snow storms kill 32 in north China

BEIJING, November 15 (Xinhua) - Early and heavy snow storms in northern China has killed 32 people, destroyed nearly 300,000 hectares of winter crops, and caused nearly 7 billion yuan (about one billion U.S. dollars) of direct economic losses 2 as of Sunday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The death toll has included those who died in the snow caused traffic accidents not, the ministry said. Ten died in Hebei Province, 12 died in Henan province, and in the other provinces of Shanxi, KwaZulu-Natal and Shaanxi.
So for 2 pm Sunday, more than 9.6 million people are touched snow storms, and 166.000 people had been evacuated from their homes or stranded vehicles jammed the roads.
More than 15,000 buildings collapsed, the ministry said.
Heavy snow storms began to fall on Monday in the northern and central Chinese provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, KwaZulu-Natal, Hubei and Shaanxi, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Beijing has also experienced heavy snow, but no deaths reported so far already.