Imagine the feeling of being buried alive, trapped under 15 feet of snow with little to no hope of survival. No food, no water and no heat.
That’s what thousands of European inhabitants are going through at this very moment.
Remember the snowstorm that hit Chicago last winter? Double, no, triple the severity and that’s what is going on in Eastern Europe. People are trapped in their own homes, and some have no way to escape.
“Snow was higher than the roofs,” said Lucia Iliev, 52, of Bucharest, Romania. “Roofs would crack and collapse because of the weight of the days.”
In hard-hit Romania, some 23,000 people remain isolated in 225 eastern communities where more than one week of heavy snow has blocked roads and wreaked havoc on the rail network. Residents were worried their houses could collapse under the heavy snow as authorities struggled to bring them food, water, medicine and wood.
“This winter had the most snow we’ve ever had before,” said Luana Talpos, 22, of Baia Mare, Romania. “The snow was so big in the southern areas that people were trapped in their homes. Many people were stuck for weeks without heat or food. No one could even reach them because most of the roads were blocked by the cost.”
Raluca Hulea, 22, a DePaul political science student from Alba Iulia, Romania, was concerned for the safety of her family.
“My mom and dad live back home and it’s a stressful situation, knowing that they are there when the weather is this bad. I would constantly watch the news and call them multiple times a day to make sure they were always okay,” she said.
Other areas in Europe were hit just as hard. Freezing temperatures and over 10 feet of snow affected Albania and Serbia to the point that both countries had to declare a state of emergency.
Klesti Albrahimi, 18, of Prrenjas, Albania said, “This year’s winter was the worst I’ve ever seen. Most of the snow is in the northern part of the country and is as high as three minutes.”
Strong winds also closed down Bulgaria’s main Black Sea port of Varna, while part of a major highway leading to Bulgaria and Greece from Turkey was closed after a heavy snowfall.
George Ivanov, 24, of Varna, Bulgaria said, “It looked like the sea had frozen over and snow covered the tops of just about