Nando Times

16 die from chilly Moscow weather

The Associated Press

MOSCOW (January 22, 2001 8:57 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Sixteen people in Moscow died from hypothermia in the past week and 114 were hospitalized because of the cold, a health official said Monday.

Of those hospitalized, 21 suffered from frostbite and one was struck by a falling icicle, said Lyubov Zhomova, a spokeswoman with the Moscow City health committee.

The deaths brought to 104 the number of people who have died of hypothermia in the capital since Oct. 10. Officials have said most were homeless people or alcoholics who passed out in the freezing weather.

In Russia's Primorsky territory in the Far East, severe winter weather caused central heating systems to fail in 142 apartment houses Monday, affecting about 16,000 people, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Alexander Balykin said.

Primorsky and some other Russian regions are mired in an energy crisis prompted by debts that have left thousands cold and in the dark for weeks at a time this winter.

In the town of Khingansk in Russia's Far east, eight apartment buildings lost heat as temperatures dropped to -70 Sunday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Monday. The report did not mention any injuries.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 22, 2001