180,000 stranded in southern China as cold weather returns: govt

From this article:

BEIJING (AFP) — Icy temperatures have swept through south China, stranding 180,000 people and leading to widespread power cuts just as the area was recovering from the worst weather in 50 years, the government said Monday.

The latest cold snap has taken a severe toll in usually temperate Yunnan province, which has been struck by heavy snowfalls since Thursday, a government official from the provincial disaster relief office told AFP.

Twelve people have died there, state Xinhua news agency reported, and four remained missing as of Saturday.

In the province's second largest city, Qujing, 80 percent of the two million residents did not have electricity due to the most recent cold snap and the severe weather that first hit China in early January, the China Daily said.