Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-14
FOOD SHORTAGE
MENAcES EUROPE
Death Toll Mounts to 800,
With Further Acute Suf-
fering in Prospect.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, February 14--Estimates of
deaths from abnormally cold weather in
Central Europe alone today ran as high
as 800, with other thousands suffering
from frostbite and kindred injuries.
Apparently worse was in prospect, with
suffering acute, particularly in South
eastern Europ, from fuel shortage.
Mines .of Poland and Czechoslovakia
were looked to relieve the situation, but
disruption Of railway traffic added even
those countries to those hardest hit.
Rivers and sea channels over most
of Europe, save in Spain, were frozen
over and choked with Ice Rome, cele-
brating Ash Wednesday, had heavy
snowfall. The Riviera was covered
with snow. In Berlin schools were
closed for week to meet the icy con-
ditions.
Temperatures Are Unprecedented.
Temperatures in many cases without
precedent and lower tan for 200 years
were reported over Europe. Meanwhile
Northern Scandinavia was normal and
perattlres as high as 40 degrees Fahren-
heit. w.
In Budapest shivering = men and
women stormed coal depot during the
night after the government had an
nounced distribution of free coal at 8
am. Because Of. the h-tense cold they
were unable to wait and they smashed
doors, loading bags, baskets, boxes and
even pockets with the precious fuel.
Fifty persons were sent to hospitals with
sprains, decorations and frozen hands as
a result of the ensuing riot and conflict
with police.
In Vienna Chancellor Seipel ordered
Parliament suspended for two weeks be-
cause of the weather, explaining that
this would save five tons of coal daily
The Austrian ministers at Prague and
Warsaw made personal appeals to the
rulers of Czechoslovakia and Poland for
additional fuel, pointing out that
AuStria's supply had shrunk from 1885,
600 tons to 10000 tons.
In CzechoSlovakia miles of coal-laden
freight cars were frozen fast to tracks
and could not be moved. while in Po-
land rationing of coal supplies had been
At Lwow, Poland, not single train
had arrived or left for three days and
a food shortage as well as fuel shortage
faced the city. Forty per cent of the
railroad staff in Poland was incapaci-
tated for work either by the cold or
influenza.
In the Cattegat and the Sound be-
tween Denmark and Sweden 1870 steam
ers were frozen fast, awaiting attempts
of ice breakers to release them Baltic
sea traffic was subject to the greatest
hazards.
Bitter cold prevailed in England and
many rivers were beginning to solidify
While London was free of snow there
were heavy drifts elsewhere and roads
were impossible. The Isis and Cam
were frozen over.
Venice Lagoons Frozen Over.
The canals and lagoons at Venice
were completely frozen over for the
first time, it is said, since the eighteenth
century.
The French weather bureau pre-
dicted even colder weather, and today
a heavy snow started falling. Ice was
forming today in the Seine and Marine.
threatening to stop traffic in them
Authorities ordered sluiceS opened to
increase the current and offer a de-
terrent. The Riviera offered plain
tive note-there are no snow shovels
there and the heavy snow has brought
too much Slush for the comfort of the
migratory PariSians who sought to
escape Winter there.