Jan. 31, 2005
USA TODAY
Heavy snow caused weekend travel chaos in Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, while Hungary endured near-record cold.
The Italian army was mobilized Sunday to reach snowbound villages in east-central Italy amid opposition calls for the transport minister to resign for incompetence.
Around 30 soldiers equipped with snowplows have been sent to cut paths to several villages cut off in the Ancona region of the east-central Marches, while other units were mobilized in Apulia, in Italy's heel and in Sicily, the military announced.
Italian soldiers had already been called in on Friday to free nearly 1,000 motorists trapped in their cars and trucks on a motorway through the mountains in Salerno, in the south of the country.
Many had spent two nights in the freezing cold inside their vehicles before being taken to reception areas set up on the side of the motorway, which re-opened to traffic on Saturday, although parts of it could not be negotiated without snow chains.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was forced to jump to the defense of his Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi amid calls for his resignation for his handling of the emergency.
"The government has no responsibility in this affair," Berlusconi told reporters.
But one of his deputy prime ministers, centrist Marco Follini, begged to differ and offered the government's apologies to motorists stranded without assistance along the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway.
The head of Civil Protection, Guido Bertolaso, also denounced the failings, which resulted in Italy being plunged into chaos even though weather forecasters had issued warnings from Tuesday.
"Assistance to people trapped by the snow and the management of these events are not within the remit of the transport ministry and I therefore see no reason to apologize" Lunardi told the daily La Republicca on Sunday.
Weather forecasters said more snowfalls were expected in the mountainous zones of Emilia Romagna, Molise (center-east), Apulia (southeast), Calabria (southwest), and Sardinia and Sicily.
In Romania, air, road and rail travel became increasingly hazardous on Sunday as heavy, persistent snow continued to fall over much of the country.
In Bucharest, which received 20 inches, only the main boulevards were passable, partly because piles of snow blocked in abandoned vehicles.
The area worst affected was the southeast of the country where snowstorms have been raging for the past 36 hours and where several trains — including two from the capital Bucharest — had to be cancelled.
Passengers faced waits of up to two hours as other trains struggled to cope with the heavy falls.
Dozens of roads were blocked, mainly in the Calarasi, Ialomita, Buzau and Tulcea regions despite the nonstop efforts of snowplows.
There were also delays to flights around the country and the airport in the eastern city of Costanta was closed. Snow also caused damage to power lines, cutting electricity to homes in at least 50 communities across the country.
Heavy snowfall in Bulgaria has forced authorities to call a state of emergency in the country's northeastern Silistra region, the country's citizen protection agency said Monday.
It said two days of continuous snow in Silistra left 62 villages in the area without electricity. Roads in the region were closed and villages had severe bread shortages.
On Sunday a woman in the area gave birth in an ambulance after being trapped in the snow for more than two hours.
The agency said snow and winds of up to 105 mph on Sunday forced the closure of the Danube border bridge with Romania near Ruse, as well as the harbors and airports in Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea, and the central airports of Plovdiv and Gorna Oryahovitsa.
The Vargas airport remained closed on Monday morning because of ice on the runway, authorities said.
Last week a 14-year-old boy in Madan in the south died when he was trapped under the snow.
In northern Hungary, temperatures sank to –22.6°C (-8°F) over the weekend, the coldest weather measured in the country since 1947.
The temperature recorded in Zabar, in the northeast, Saturday is the "lowest measured since 1947 when it was only -20.6°C" (-5°F), said meteorologist Istvan Bozoki.
He said the cold was due to snow, wind and a lack of cloud cover.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Hungary was -35°C (-31°F) in Miskolc, also in the northeast, in 1940.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-01-31-Europe-winter_x.htm