U.S. sends aid for storm victims

The U.S. military has shipped thousands of jackets, blankets and boxed rations to help victims of China’s worst winter storms in more than 50 years, the official New China News Agency reported.

The supplies were handed over in Shanghai to the People’s Liberation Army, which forwarded them for distribution to parts of the country’s hard-hit eastern and central regions. The U.S. aid worth $820,000 included 6,000 winter coats, 1,657 blankets and 87,552 ration packets, the news agency said.

Almost four weeks of severe snow and ice storms beginning Jan. 10 killed more than 80 people, leveled 300,000 homes and laid waste to many crops.