Flash Floods in Russia kill 99 people

Flash floods in Russia have killed at least 99 people, police have confirmed.

The equivalent of five months' rain fell overnight in some southern parts of the country, and the death toll is likely to rise as more bodies are discovered.

Some 56 people - including a 10-year-old - were killed in the Krasnodarsky Krai region's Krymsk district, 750 miles south of Moscow. Governor Alexander Tkachev said it was the worst disaster in the area for 70 years.

Nine others died in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik, and two in the port of Novorossiisk.

At least five of those who died in the town were killed by an electrical shock when a transformer fell into the water.

"You can see from the air that the water in Gelendzhik has nearly died down, but something unimaginable is happening in Krymsk," Mr Tkachev said.

Regional police spokesman Igor Zhelyabin said: "The floods were very strong. Even traffic lights were ripped out, evacuations are under way.

"A rescue operation is on-going. More bodies are being discovered. Police are beefing up their presence to prevent mass looting," he added.

Video on Russian television showed waist-high muddy water coursing through city streets. Police said the floods have damaged the homes of nearly 13,000 people.

"There are lots of overturned cars, even huge trucks. Brick fences are washed away," said Vladimir Anosov, who lives in the village of Novoukrainsky.

"People are on the street, they are at a loss what to do. Helicopters are flying overhead, they are evacuating people from the flooded areas. The floods are really, really huge.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has set up a commission to help the victims, his office said.
Gallery:
Pictures: Russian Flash Floods Pictures issued by police forces in Russia show some examples of the widespread flooding.


---------------------------------------------

The World Wide floods is apparently the result of the Jet Stream..........I will try to find some information. Whatever the reason it is devastating .

Flash floods caused by torrential rain have swept the southern Russian Krasnodar region, killing 144 people, officials say.

The floods, the worst there in living memory, struck at night, reportedly without warning.

TV pictures showed people scrambling onto their rooftops to escape.

President Vladimir Putin has flown over the region by helicopter and has had emergency talks with officials in the worst-hit town of Krymsk.

Most of those who died were in and around Krymsk, a town of 57,000 people. But nine deaths were reported in the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik with a further two in the port town of Novorossiysk.

Russian TV showed thousands of houses in the region almost completely submerged and police said many of the victims were elderly people who had been asleep at the time.

"Our house was flooded to the ceiling," Krymsk pensioner Lidiya Polinina told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

"We broke the window to climb out. I put my five-year-old grandson on the roof of our submerged car, and then we somehow climbed up into the attic."

Dozens of people are reportedly missing, and there are fears that the death toll will rise further.

Emergency teams have been sent from Moscow by plane and helicopter.

Crude oil shipments from Novorossiysk have been suspended.

Some 28 cm of water fell in some areas
Regional governor Alexander Tkachev tweeted after flying over the affected area that there was "something unimaginable" going on in Krymsk.

He said, quoted by the Russian Itar-Tass news agency, that "no-one can remember such floods in our history. There was nothing of the kind for the last 70 years".

'Tsunami'

Some users of social media networks in Russia said Krymsk looked like it was hit "by a tsunami". Others accused the authorities of not telling the whole truth about the disaster.


The head of the liberal opposition Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin, said on his Twitter feed that local activists had blamed the ferocity of the flood on the opening of sluice gates at a reservoir.

But Krasnodar's regional administration dismissed the allegation as "absolute nonsense", Ria news agency said.

The Krasnodar-Novorossiysk motorway was cut, and the transport system in the region is said to have collapsed.

In a statement, the Krasnodar authorities said altogether 13,000 people had been affected by the floods.

They have declared Monday a day of mourning.

'In state of panic'

Up to 1,000 rescuers are involved in searching for victims and evacuating survivors.

More than 7,000 Russian children were attending summer camps in the area and one of the camps was evacuated, Russian media reported.

"The floods were very strong. Even traffic lights were ripped out," regional police spokesman Igor Zhelyabin told AFP news agency, adding that evacuations were under way.

Scenes of devastation greeted rescuers in Krymsk
Anna Kovalevskaya, who says she has relatives in Krymsk, told the BBC her family was caught unawares by the floods.

"The water started flooding in at 02:00 [22:00 GMT Friday]," she said.

"People were running out into the streets in their underwear and wrapping their children in blankets. People were only able to save their passports.

"There is no electricity and the shops are shut. Many people have lost everything and are in a state of panic."

The rains dumped as much as 28cm (11 inches) of water on parts of the Krasnodar region overnight, forcing many residents to take refuge in trees or on house roofs.

Oil pipeline operator Transneft said it had halted crude shipments out of Novorossiysk, but that its infrastructure in the port had been unaffected by the weather.

"Of course, we limited shipments, the port is located in the lower part of town, the whole landslide has moved towards it. As we speak, the rain has started again," spokesman Vladimir Sidorov told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Oleg Boldyrev reports from the badly-hit town of Krymsk: "Everyone gets two loaves of bread and a few bottles of water"


Russian officials failed to give adequate warnings before flash floods that killed at least 171 people in the southern Krasnodar region, the Russian government says.

President Vladimir Putin has demanded a full report by the weekend on the disaster and how it was handled.

Two local leaders have been dismissed.

A day of mourning is being held for the victims. Record torrential rain has been blamed for the floods, which devastated the town of Krymsk.

Seventeen people are still missing after Friday night's disaster. Russian media say 210 people are in hospital, including 48 children.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said there had been warnings but "not all the population was warned in time".

"Mistakes were made by local leaders and various services," he said.

Local officials say flood warnings were given using sirens, sms messages and loudspeakers. But many people were asleep at the time and did not hear them.

Continue reading the main story
Analysis

Oleg Boldyrev

BBC Russian, Krymsk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The relief operation is slowly getting up to speed. Hundreds of people are being placed in temporary accommodation.

They spend their day cleaning their mud-coated homes, and their nights sleeping on mattresses.

There's still a lot of confusion. Many people are signing up to lists, but they're not sure why: "Just in case," they say.

There's lots of communal support, bypassing official channels. Volunteers from nearby towns are clearing the streets and handing out water. The residents are certainly grateful.

Everyone I spoke is adamant the dam had something to do with it. They say it's not possible that rain alone could have wreaked such damage. The authorities say the cause was just extremely heavy rain, but they clearly need to do a lot more to convince the people here, who are very mistrustful.

Follow Oleg's updates on Twitter

A criminal investigation is under way into possible negligence.

The rains dumped as much as 28cm (11 inches) of water over Friday night, forcing many residents to take refuge in trees or on house roofs. The Russian weather forecasting centre said the rainfall was five times the monthly average.

The centre's chief, Roman Vilfand, said the water poured down a steep-sided valley, rapidly swelling a river which swept away all in its path, Interfax news agency reported.

Dam 'not to blame'

Officials deny allegations - widespread among locals - that the opening of reservoir sluice gates was to blame for the ferocity of the floods.

Mr Puchkov said "there were no factors to cause any rapid rise in water levels in the reservoir", adding that he had inspected the sluice gates.

An environmental official, Nikolai Kutin, echoed his finding, saying only a breach in the dam could have produced a flood of water and that had not happened.

Earlier, an investigator said there had been "normal, planned" discharges of water from the reservoir, which could not have led to the disaster.

The day of mourning and inquiry were called by President Putin after he toured the affected area in a helicopter on Saturday.

It was the first major disaster in Russia since Mr Putin, 59, returned for a third-term earlier this year, after a four-year term as prime minister.

Russia is also mourning 14 pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Ukraine on Saturday. The Russian bus was travelling in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, about 150km (90 miles) northeast of Kiev, when it veered off the road and overturned. Twenty-nine of the passengers, en route to a monastery, were injured.

Thousands homeless

TV pictures from Krasnodar region showed thousands of houses almost completely submerged, with people scrambling on to their rooftops to escape the rising waters.


Most of those who died were in and around Krymsk, a town of 57,000 people. But deaths were also reported in the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik and in the port town of Novorossiysk.

Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev said on Sunday that more than 24,000 people had been affected by the floods. The regional authorities say more than 5,000 houses were inundated.

"It's an unprecedented tragedy. There has been nothing like it in our history," Mr Tkachev said.

The heads of the Krymsk and Krymsk district councils have been dismissed.

Three government planes carrying more rescuers and relief supplies arrived in Krasnodar on Monday.

More than 7,000 Russian children were attending summer camps in the area and one of the camps was evacuated, Russian media reported.

Oil pipeline operator Transneft said it had halted crude shipments out of Novorossiysk - a major port on the Black Sea.

But the company added that that its infrastructure had been unaffected by the weather.