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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRising Death Toll - No End in Sight for European Deep Freeze
Well over 100 people have died in Eastern Europe due to a winter cold snap that has held the region in its icy grip for nearly a week. From Ukraine to Italy, snow and temperatures as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit) have clogged road and air traffic, caused power outages, closed schools, trapped mountain residents and claimed the lives of those caught outside, mainly the homeless.
Some 101 people have died in Ukraine alone, with 38 new deaths reported overnight, the Emergencies Ministry said on Friday. Temperatures there have dipped to below minus 30 degrees Celsius, making it the country's coldest winter in six years. While most of the dead have been homeless people found on the streets, hundreds of others have also been treated for frostbite and other problems caused by the cold. Authorities have set up some 3,000 heated tents to protect the homeless. Most schools in the country are also reportedly closed.
In Serbia at least 11,000 mountain residents in remote areas have been stranded by blizzards that left snow drifts up to 16 feet tall. Rescue workers there have been working to deliver supplies to trapped residents. Helicopters have been sent out to deliver goods to areas there and in neighboring Bosnia, where it has reportedly been snowing for 26 days in the southwestern town of Sijenica.
"We are trying everything to unblock the roads since more snow and blizzards are expected in the coming days," Serbian emergency police official Predrag Maric told The Associated Press on Thursday. Fuel supplies are also reportedly low for snowplows in the area, where residents have been warned not to venture out into the cold alone.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,813132,00.html
Swede
(33,233 posts)Screwy winter.
2ndAmForComputers
(3,527 posts)"HAW HAW YOU STOOPID LIBRULS THERES NO GLOBUL WORMIN DUUUUHHHRRR!!!"
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)last year there was 10-15 inches of snow in my back yard
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)some 40 degree weather lately
Tanelorn
(359 posts)with calling it Global Warming and not what seems to be the more appropriate term Climate Change?
msongs
(67,394 posts)usual, west europe and lots of north america warmer than usual. changing patterns.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)DCKit
(18,541 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)but we had that kind of late winter the last two running. This one has been nice so far though and maybe it'll hold out but its still plenty early enough to get a big blow through here in Ok.