Winter Brings Misery To Russia

Russia's winter has arrived early and fierce, with fuel shortages causing desperation in some regions. Hundreds of thousands of people were without heat or electricity Wednesday night, CBS Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton reports.

In Vladivostok, a Pacific port city of 600,000, a state of
emergency has been declared. The central heating has been cut off for weeks at a time this winter. Dressing for school takes on a new meaning there.

It's even worse in Kamchatka, where families are cooking meals on the street. People are using anything they can get their hands on for fuel. Soup kitchens have been set up for those who can't cope.

The central power plant is almost out of fuel, leaving most of the city cold and dark. Families in glacial apartments are bundling up in bed as pipes burst and sewage freezes in toilets. In such extreme circumstances, it takes Russian ingenuity just to stay alive.

In short, everything seems to be falling apart as Russia enters
what is expected to be one of the coldest winters since records were first kept in 1879. Temperatures have already dropped as low as minus 13 here in the capital, and the real winter is yet to come.

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