“Me First!” : CCYL members in grid rescue and reinstallation

“I’m most worried to see so many power grids crumble down under the snow but we electricity workers are not frustrated. We are determined to re-erect them!” Wu Xinkun, a young Vanguard Brigade member of China’s Heilongjiang Provincial Power Plant, was seen busily rescuing the power grid at Xiangtan, Hunan Province on February 20.

　At 7 p.m. February 17, the Plant sent its third batch of nearly 200 young Vanguard Brigade workers by train south bound to rescue the local power grid. “Every morning at six o’clock, crew members would go to the spot. Sun Shaoying was all along not acclimatized but he clenched his teeth and insisted on working there until he was sent to hospital for appendicitis yesterday.” Wu said.  　

　　A rare snow blizzard in 50 years swept parts of southern China in January 2008, inflicting great damages on some of the Chinese provincial and regional power grids. Emergency calls poured in from Hunan, Guizhou, Hubei, and Jiangxi and Sichuan provinces…

　　On January 31 the youth organizations of the National Grid Co called upon all young people to take action and go to the front line of the rescue. 

　　Statistics showed that the youth organizations of National Grid Co. at all levels organized over 36000 young people into 807 young vanguard brigades and 499 youth service teams to fight against the frozen grids on the front line.

　　On the early hours of January 19, Ou Guoan, Director of Grid Technology Center of Hunan Provincial Power Co. received the first mission of rescue: plan the restoration of a fallen tower on the Changning line. He lost no time in phoning the colleagues “We will be there in ten minutes” while dressing himself up hurriedly. Within two hours they had completed all the blueprint designs and delivered them to the workshop. 

　　Starting January 23, several 200KV, 220KV and 110KV lines of Hunan Grid let out alarm calls…

　The technical center threw up a young vanguard brigades and 16 workers got combat-ready round the clock. Assignments often came in batches and in great emergency. Blueprints within one or two hours at the quickest and three to four hours at the longest! No errors tolerated!

　In that process members worked for 76 hours on end at the longest. It was often the case they were crouching on the table dead tired after having completed one assignment. And when another emergency mission ensued, they’d buoy up and go to the first front once again.

　　Yang Xixiang was an ordinary woman electricity worker in the countryside. The Hunan Lincheng power supplier worker offered to join the young vanguard brigades when rescuers ran short in the worsening disaster. She asked to be sent to the forefront. Wearing work outfits and a safety helmet, she worked alongside with men in all village rescue areas, holding up pillars, pulling wires, transmitting insulators and stretching rods. 

　“Everybody has a share of responsibility in the rescue effort. We women are no inferior to men,” she exclaimed.

　　On January 28 and 29, Cao Xianglin from Hunan’s Chenzhou Power Bureau and Xiao Jianhua from Jiahe County Power Co laid down their lives in succession. More grid workers were injured and overworked … but the frozen Hunan grid was resuscitated with zealous support from all sides. 

　Jiangxi grid workers clearly remembered that the January 12 afternoon blizzards and cold spell were prelude to the Jiangxi grid disaster. The sleets raged beyond imagination. The ice and icicles got so thick that they overburdened the provincial grid. It was a scene of crumbled poles, towers and broken lines everywhere. Emergency calls poured in one after another 

　From 2:15 a.m. January 21, accumulated ice broke the only 110KV grid line to Lushan for the fourth time, throwing Lushan into outage predicament. The importance of power to the 4000-plus Lushan households in cold zone was self-evident. 

　In the snowstorm at temperature of –11 degrees C, Hu Yezhen worked for over three hours on a post until he was frozen up there. Other team members simply pulled him down and a tearful squad leader warmed him up in his chest.  

Wherever there were dangers there would appear Youth Leaguers. “Warm up the cold winter with ardor and break ice with compassions” was a slogan for the young vanguard brigades to inspire themselves. It was also a true portrayal of every youth in the rescue effort …

One batch fell and another stepped in …

Since January 11 a lasting snow and sleet disaster blanketed the Huitong county electricity facilities with ice. Thousands of electricity poles were crushed and broken, leaving 297 villages in outage.  

　　For this sake, the Hunan Huahua Power Bureau speedily set in motion the warning and contingency mechanism. Soon a young vanguard brigade appeared in the icy scene. 

 “Cold, freezing cold” --- that was the deepest feeling of every vanguard brigade member. Among them, Wang Yong, Liu Liangyou and Tang Changsheng climbed up a post in the cold wind. The chiseling cold wind turned their faces purple and their hands rigid. Getting hungry, they bit a piece of dried foodstuff. Getting thirsty, they had a mouthful of snow. Everyone was chanting labor songs while twisting the bar capstan. When one batch fell, another would step in…

　“Let me go there!” “I don’t get down!” “Let me go first!” “I can make it” … The young vanguard brigade members on the front line of rescue annotated their spirit of hardship and contribution with action.

　With the New Year Day approaching, Wuhu city was hit by a snowstorm that was rare in five decades. Surgical patients multiplied and clinical blood demand soared, with blood bank deposit plummeting to an all time low. On February 2, right at the critical moment of rescue in the power supply effort, 21 young Wuhu Power Plant workers rushed to the blood center to donate blood, contributing fresh blood to the neediest ones. 

　　On February 1 and 2, Shanghai released an orange blizzard alert. The Shanghai Power Co. 95598 customer service center undertook the metropolis’ telegraph repair services. 98% of the company staff was youth league members. From February 1 to 3, the center received 14875 hotline calls, and handled 5921 obstacle operations, sending out 5000-plus people everyday…

 “We are braving high risks, enormous difficulties and urgent tasks in our fight against ice in Hunan. To make the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line operate safe and sound, we will certainly fulfill our mission on March 5 as scheduled,” said Wu Xiankun from Northeast China’s Heilongjiang.