Even by Russian standards, it's cold. In the Far East village of Susuman, temperatures dipped to minus 58 degrees Farenheit

The cold weather spell hitting Europe caused several pipelines in the village to rupture. Steam from the broken lines clung to several apartment buildings and many are without running water.

The few who did venture out of their homes, kept their exposure limited to short walks to work or to buy groceries.

Croatia's Adriatic coast were particularly hard hit with whole villages reporting power outages and shortages of food. While many waited for rescue teams to deliver supplies, one local man with a baby at home in need of milk, took matters in own hands.

He joked --- 'it's my four wheel drive.' The heavy snowfall is forecast to continue until the middle of the week.

Deborah Gembara, Reuters.