The Year Without a Summer – 1816 – struck the Eifel hard, bringing famine, floods and weather damage along with it. Snow was still lying on the ground into June. Hay was only harvested in September, and the grain only ripened in October. That same month came frost, and by early November, snow was falling once again. The next year, 1817, the Eifel dwellers suffered under the lingering effects of the foregoing year's disastrous and unusual weather patterns. Common foodstuffs were not so common, and cost much more than usual. People were so hungry that they were eating livestock fodder and roots. The Prussian government helped ease the crisis by making available two million "Thaler", and ensuring the poor their daily bread by buying up great quantities of grain from East Prussia.