They keep the buckets as close as possible to the heaters, but sometimes the water freezes anyway and they hew off chunks with a knife to make tea. Zarudayeva hasn't been able to bathe in weeks, not even at the city banya, or bathhouse, which is without power. Throughout the region, frostbite has become endemic. During the first week in January, hospitals in Kemerovo reported 500 cases. Frostbite related amputations in Irkutsk are averaging three a day.
Burns also are on the rise as residents jury-rig gas and kerosene stoves.
Such efforts led to two gas explosions in the cities of Biysk and Novosibirsk that left at least six dead. More than 50 frozen corpses have been collected off the streets of Irkutsk, although authorities have yet to determine what role the cold might have played in the deaths. Nearly everywhere, schools have been shut and public transportation curtailed. In recent days, hundreds of Vladivostok residents have held street protests to demand that local officials be held accountable for the outages. In many regions, law enforcement agencies have opened criminal investigations of energy and utility officials.