Bitter cold killed nine people in Romania and the Czech Republic over the past two days, shut Black Sea ports and disrupted transport and energy supplies in parts of Eastern Europe, officials said on Monday. Wintry weather also hit northern, central and eastern Turkey, leaving nearly 4,000 villages cut off from the outside world.

Temperatures of around minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) killed six men in the eastern Romanian counties of Vrancea, Bacau and Buzau, state radio Romania Actualitati reported, quoting police. Three people froze to death overnight in various parts of the Czech Republic where temperatures dropped as low as minus 30 Celsius (-22F) and broke historical records in some cities, Czech News Agency CTK reported. The Temelin nuclear power station in the Czech Republic said it had to shut down its sole running reactor for several hours early on Monday due to the low temperatures.

Strong blizzards hit Hungary, where several roads and schools in the northeastern Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen county were forced to close and wind damaged the roofs of around 80 houses, state news agency MTI reported. In Croatia, gale-force winds shut roads, bridges and ferry lines on Monday, including sections of the main motorway connecting the capital Zagreb and the Adriatic coast, state radio reported.

Heavy snow in Turkey caused the collision of a bus and a foreign ministry service vehicle, killing at least nine people including diplomats, the ministry said. Blizzards also forced the closure of the narrow Bosphorus straits to all shipping.

Romania closed its Black Sea ports on Monday, including the biggest port of Constanta, due to strong winds and temperatures as low as minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4F) on the sea shore. “We decided to close the ports of Constanta, Midia and Mangalia early in the day because of strong winds of around 60 kmh (35 mph) from the northeast,” said an official from the Constanta Port Authority.

Also closed to shipping was the Sulina canal, north of Constanta, and the Danube-Black Sea canal. Gas agency DNGN said it cut deliveries to the safety level for several chemical plants across Romania, including Azomures SA and fertiliser producer Amonil Slobozia. “Gas volumes through Isaccea (transit point) at the border with Ukraine have dropped by almost 9-10 percent because of extremely low temperatures in Russia and Ukraine,” said DNGN director Marius Stroia.

Stroia said household consumers would not suffer because Romgaz, the main gas producer, increased its output by 1 million cubic metres (35 million cu ft) per day to make up for the shortfall. Romania’s biggest oil company Petrom, majority owned by Austria’s OMV, also said it would boost daily gas output by around 3 million cubic metres. Romania produces 13 billion cubic metres of gas a year, or about 60 percent of its annual gas needs, and imports the rest mostly from Russia. It imports 16.8 million cubic metres of natural gas a day via a pipeline through Ukraine. Meteorologists forecast temperatures of minus 25-30 Celsius (minus 13-22F) for the rest of the week.