The cold snap has killed dozens of people, while a few thousand have required medical care. Ambulances are having a hard time reaching the sick due to snow-covered roads and snowdrifts, in some places 2-meter high. Numerous towns and villages are reporting blackouts, while several others have remained without running water, and others are simply cut off from the rest of the country. Classes have been called off in thousands of schools and kindergartens.

The harsh snowstorm and glazed frost continue to cripple road traffic, as dozens of national roads and over a hundred county roads have been completely or partially shut down, along with the motorway linking the capital-city Bucharest to the Romanian Black Sea coast. Railway traffic has also been severely disrupted, as dozens of trains have been cancelled and several dozen others have reported several-hour delays. Forecasters have warned against a new wave of extreme cold weather taking Romania in its grip as of Wednesday. Mihaita Hustiu from the National Meteorology Administration has the details:

“When the code warning against snowfalls and snowstorm expires, all regions of the country will register extremely low temperatures. The cold snap will continue throughout the end of the week, as low temperatures will range between –25 and –15 degrees C, while freezing temperatures will not exceed –12, -11 degrees C on Friday and Saturday."

The cold snap continues to bite in Europe as well, where nearly 400 people have been killed following massive snowfalls and deadly frost.