Cold snap leads to emergencymeasures
Belgrade – Heavy snow and a severe cold snap have killed at least 36 people across eastern Europe, and many areas were under emergency measures today as schools closed, roads became impassable and power supplies were cut.
As temperatures dropped to about minus 20 degrees Celsius, authorities opened hundreds of emergency shelters across the region and urged people to be careful and stay indoors. Police went searching for homeless people to make sure they did not freeze to death.
Ukraine’s Emergency Situations Ministry said 18 people died of hypothermia and nearly 500 sought medical help for frostbite and hypothermia in just three days last week. Twelve of the dead were homeless people.
Temperatures in parts of Ukraine plunged to minus 16C during the day and minus 23C during the night. Authorities opened 1500 shelters to provide food and heat, and shut down schools and nurseries.
At least 10 people froze to death in Poland as the cold reached minus 26C today.
Malgorzata Wozniak, a spokeswoman for Poland’s Interior Ministry, said elderly people and the homeless were among the dead, and police were checking unheated empty buildings to corral the homeless into shelters.
In Romania, local media reported that four people had died due to the frigid weather. Near the capital, Bucharest, a dozen prison inmates shovelled snow today to unblock paths to a stray dog shelter housing 300 animals. The strays had been frozen in after snowstorms.