- Europe Freeze!
Europe freeze! Recently, 130 lives have been claimed by the severe cold weather in the remote areas of Serbia, resulting to 11,000 villagers cut off from the world. In addition, six deaths have also been recorded in Serbia, with emergency services expressing concerns for the health of the sick and the elderly in particular. A BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe reported that, the snow in Serbia started on the 7th of January, and has not stopped till date.
According to weather experts, 63 people have died in Ukraine and many more rendered homeless while another 29 died in Poland as a result of the harsh and freezing European weather condition. It further stated that temperatures went below -30C (-22F) in other parts of Europe.
Emergency services in Serbia have described the situation, close to the country’s south-western borders with Kosovo and Montenegro, as very serious. According to an emergency official Pedrag Maric, he said that the snow has reached a depth of 2m (ft 6in) and fourteen municipalities have been affected. (Europe freeze!)
Several people have been moved by helicopter for safety, and food and medicines have been flown to isolated areas.
Weather experts also said that this week’s cold has been recorded as the coldest week in Italy for the past 27 years. However, thick snow has caused a general disorder in the Northern and Central parts of Italy.
More than 600 passengers were stuck on an unheated train in the Apennine Mountains for seven hours on Wednesday night, when the brakes and electrical cables froze from the freezing temperatures taking place around Europe.
Russia and Kazakhstan have recorded the coldest temperatures, as Cars and Lorries have been stuck in snow, in the southern part of Russia, between Novorossiisk and Krasnodar.
Turkey has also been affected by heavy snow on Wednesday, with 50cm falling in Istanbul. It got a woman killed in her home in the South- Eastern part of the country.
Europe freeze! How long this will go on, and how many lives will be lost before it ends is what nobody knows yet.
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