Europe shivers as cold snap settles in

Press, 13 January 1987, Page 8

Europe shivers as cold snap settles in

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Soviet railway workers, soldiers and volunteers struggled yesterday to unravel rail chaos caused by the coldest January since 1950, which has caused 48 deaths and put fresh strains on the economy. A killer cold snap is sweeping across Europe and record low temperatures have been reported, with eastern Siberia the coldest recorded place at -60 deg.

In Sweden, the army was called out to take food and medicine to thousands of homes cut off by snow and ice.

Swedish electricity companies appealed to people to reduce their consumption because the electricity network would collapse if usage was not cut down.

Cold weather swept as far south as Italy, and Radio Rome reported yesterday that temperatures had dropped below freezing in northern parts of the country.

Moscow television news said yesterday that thousands of waggons, mostly loaded with coal, were standing in sidings as

severe frosts caused chaos across the country. The sudden drop in temperature had revealed a lack of readiness in a population that should know better about the effects of cold, the news broadcast chided.

A particular problem had built up along the Far-Eastern coast, where ships were lined up waiting to take export goods from the railways, the television added, criticising the Ministry of Foreign Trade for slowness in easing the crisis. Official newspapers reported earlier that the cold, in which 48 people have died in fires caused by defective heaters, was starting to hit the economy.

Energy extraction and distribution' have been affected, and fuel consumption has risen despite appeals for domestic users to save electricity. Soviet oil exports are not expected to be affected immediately.

The windows of Russian homes are now plugged with cotton wool and strips of paper blocking every crack against the

frost But many people are still cold at home and congregate for warmth in the kitchen, where the stove is invariably kept switched on, in defiance of nightly appeals on television for fuel savings. The . television- campaign began even before the cold snap started; as the Soviet Union is facing, an energy shortfall in part owing to the Chernobyl nuclear accident last April.-

The cold caused two deaths in Sweden at the Week-end, when a passenger train smashed into a railway engine at Stode station, north of Stockholm. Officials said it looked as though a frozen switch had diverted the train to the wrong track. In Poland, which is having the coldest weather since 1963, P.A.P. news agency said yesterday that rescuers in the southern Tatra mountains found the body of a young climber who had been reported missing last Thursday. Budapest radio reported that crossing points have been closed on the border

with Austria and Czechoslovakia. On the BudapestVienna highway, 150 cars were trapped in the snow.

The official Czechoslovak . news agency, C.T.K, said temperatures which plunged to below -20 deg. in many parts of the country over the week-end were expected to continue until late in the week. . Temperatures were close to a record low throughout Britain yesterday, reaching a maximum of -3deg., the weather bureau said. They predicted more of the same today. British newspapers reported seven deaths related to freezing temperatures, including a female climber who slipped down an icy rock face at Ben More, in central Scotland. A man and two teen-age boys were found dead in Chester, central England, after apparently being overcome by fumes from a gas heater while they slept Three pensioners were found dead from cold in their homes in the Thames Valley, southern England.