(Corrects death toll in headline and first paragraph of story published on Nov. 14.)

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The mayor of China’s Shijiazhuang apologized for the response to the region’s heaviest snows in six decades as Beijing pledged funds to help people caught in the storms that have left 19 dead and thousands stranded.

Ai Wenli, mayor of the capital of Hebei province battered by 55 centimeters (22 inches) of snow this week, said at a briefing broadcast on China Central Television yesterday that he and other city officials would strive to provide better relief to the city of about 10 million.

Premier Wen Jiabao traveled by train Nov. 12 to Hebei province, adjacent to Beijing, to oversee relief efforts as snowstorms trapped thousands on frozen highways and forced Beijing’s airport to delay or cancel 450 flights. Airports and highways in northern China were closed again yesterday as the China Meteorological Administration forecast blizzards in eastern Jilin province and southeastern Heilongjiang province.

“Close attention must be paid to changes in weather and improvements made in implementing response plans to protect people’s lives and properties and minimize losses,” the State Council said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. “Authorities should place the work of protecting people’s livelihoods, transportation and production in a prominent position.”

China’s central government has allocated 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) each to Hebei and Shanxi provinces, where it will be used to relocate people affected by the storms, the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

Six Decades

Hebei, Shanxi and Henan provinces received the most snow in 60 years from Nov. 9 to Nov. 12, with the heaviest downfalls in a century in some areas, the meteorological administration said. Storms on Nov. 12 covered Beijing with 16 centimeters of snow, the city’s heaviest snowfall since weather data began in 1955, according to the meteorological administration.

About 7.6 million people in seven provinces have been affected by the snowstorms, which have caused 4.5 billion yuan ($660 million) of damage, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on its Web site. More than 9,000 homes had collapsed, while 190,400 hectares (470,488 acres) of crops were destroyed.

The National Development and Reform Commission ordered its local bureaus to take all measures to stabilize food and fuel prices and transportation costs, vowing to “severely punish” pricing irregularities, according to a statement dated yesterday on the planning agency’s Web site.

Children Killed

Six children in Hebei province were killed at two schools when accumulated snow caused cafeterias to collapse, People’s Daily reported. Another student was killed when a canteen at another school in Henan province also caved in, the newspaper reported on its Web site yesterday.

One person was killed and 25 injured in Shijiazhuang when a warehouse collapsed, according to Xinhua. The snow also caused a PetroChina Co. gas station in Hebei to fall, without injuring anyone, according to a separate Xinhua report.

Airports in Liaoning province’s Chaoyang, Heilongjiang province’s Jixi, Jilin province’s Yanji and the city of Tongliao in Inner Mongolia remained closed yesterday due to snow, according to CCTV. Flights to Changchun, capital of Jilin province, and Shijiazhuang were affected by snow, according to China Aviation Resource Net, a Web site that tracks flight schedules.

Highways Reopened

Most of the highways closed in eight provinces, including Heilongjiang, yesterday opened to traffic again as of 5 p.m. today, CCTV reported. Thousands of vehicles remain trapped on roads in northern China, the Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site yesterday, without saying how many people were stranded. Tens of thousands of people in Beijing have also been delayed by late trains, CCTV reported.

China dispatched 25,000 police officers to help clear roads in snow-hit areas, according to the security ministry. Almost 1,000 sanitation workers spread 528 tons of “snowmelt” agent on Beijing’s roads Nov. 12, Xinhua reported.

Hunan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces will see snow or even snowstorms in the next three days, the China National Radio reported today, citing the China Meteorological Administration. Temperatures in most of the nation will remain as much as 3 degrees Celsius (4.2 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than normal for the coming 10 days, the report said.

Obama Visit

Improved conditions in Beijing will come as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives next week for his first state visit to America’s second-largest trading partner.

The government has also denied inducing the snowfall by seeding clouds with silver iodide.

China didn’t induce the snowfall this week, said an official with the news department of the China Meteorological Administration, who would only give his surname Li. He denied a report by the China Daily newspaper that the Beijing Weather Modification office seeded clouds on Nov. 10.

The Beijing-based English-language newspaper called the practice of inducing snow and rain “controversial” in its Nov. 11 report and said “weather manipulation” had caused a “big mess” in the Chinese capital.

The meteorological administration’s Li said the government had seeded clouds to induce snow on Nov. 1, before the current snowfall started. Snow was induced because Beijing is suffering from drought, according to a Nov. 1 Xinhua report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Irene Shen in Shanghai at Ishen4@bloomberg.netEugene Tang in Beijing at eugenetang@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 15, 2009 20:38 EST