Rescue helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and air-lifted in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept Eastern Europe in its icy grip. The death toll from the cold rose to 83 on Wednesday and emergency crews worked overtime as temperatures sank to minus 32.5 C (minus 26.5 F) in some areas, AP reported. Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and the rare show fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago as four more people were reported dead from hypothermia. In central Serbia, choppers pulled out 12 people, including nine who went to a funeral but then could not get back over icy, snow-choked roads. Two more people froze to death in the snow and two others are missing, bringing that nation's death toll to five. One of the evacuees was an elderly woman who had fallen into a coma. She survived after being airlifted to a hospital. Two helicopters were also used Wednesday to rescue people and supply remote villages in northern Bosnia. Some Bosnian villages have had no electricity for days and crews were working around-the-clock trying to fix power lines. Ukraine alone reported 43 deaths, mostly of homeless people. The country's Emergency Situations Ministry said 28 people had been found dead on the streets, eight died in hospitals and seven in their homes. Over 720 others were hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite.
