Almost 1,500 people are involved in dealing with the aftermath of heavy rains and floods that hit south Russia’s Krasnodar region earlier this week, rescuers said.
"As of 21:00 Moscow time, 1,846 households which are home to 5,379 people remain flooded in three municipalities," the press office of the regional rescue service said in a statement. "377 people, including 186 children, have been evacuated. The effort to clear the aftermath of the disaster involves 1,460 people and 330 pieces of construction hardware and special equipment, including three emergency response and recovery trains."
Heavy rains in the Krasnodar Region had previously flooded railway lines, delayed trains and destroyed a bridge on the Tuapse-Maikop highway. All services are operating on a round-the-clock basis. Local officials said that two people were killed, two were injured, and one person is missing as a result of the floods. Earlier, the Emergencies Ministry issued an emergency warning about floods with thunderstorms, hail and winds on the region’s territory on October 25 and 26. A state of emergency has been declared in the region.
In addition, communication with the resort city of Sochi through the federal highway was disrupted after a bridge on the Makopse River was damaged and a 200-meter section of a motorway leading to it had been destroyed early on Thursday. Besides, rail traffic along the only railway leading to Sochi also stopped, as the tracks were flooded or damaged by landslides in some areas.
Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov said, however, that traffic via the Makopse bridge is expected to resume at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time on Saturday. He also said that although weather in the region remains far from normal early on Friday,the emergency warning of downpours, hailstorms and strong winds so far proves to be wrong.
"The situation is normal, today’s rains cannot be compared to yesterday’s, they are relatively harmless. Of course, we have deployed police patrols and volunteers, put rescue services on standby and alerted the population," he said, TASS reported.
Meanwhile, residents have already started to return to Kransnodar region’s Apsheron district, deputy head of the local administration, Andrei Klishchenko, said.
"About 900 people were evacuated [on Thursday] morning, but water started to subside very quickly, so people have begun returning to their homes. About 200-250 people remain in temporary shelters, but their number is constantly changing," he said.
