Kuban Region: Life after the Deluge

Krasnodar, 25 August. Although the cyclone is leaving, state of emergency remains in effect in four Kuban municipalities: Novorossiysk, Slaviansk and Temriuk rayons, and Anapa City, the worst affected area. 

According to the regional branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 34 settlements have been relieved from floodwaters. Four settlements, 17 households and 173 yards remained submerged in water at press time. This time, it was not enough to pump off the water in conventional way – some special devices had to be used. 

“As a remedial action against the consequences of the emergency situation applied to relieve the submerged areas from floodwaters, six drainage canals of the total length of 2,180 metres were laid. We opened 17 temporary accommodation facilities, where 629 persons were housed,” Nikita Gavriliak, Head of the Press Service of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, reported. A problem is that all temporary accommodation facilities are regularly checked by Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian health watchdog, because the state of emergency did not cancel the alert regime announced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The headcount of the emergency service officers and volunteers engaged in the fight with the blow of the elements and its consequences is 1,143, plus 334 specialized vehicles. Over a week, they relieved from floodwaters over 2,100 households and 3,500 outdoor spaces. 

David Vasilian, Deputy Director of the Specialized Fire Rescue Detachment of the regional Ministry of Emergency Situations, confirmed that their staff are fully physically and psychologically prepared to such situations. Every officer has experienced more than once suchlike emergency situation, and they all know how to behave and what to do. 

“Every morning, I have a conversation with my staff. It is very important to have them correctly tuned up. Our rescuers know that it is their job to help people in trouble. Their life motto says – who else if not us? And when you see the hope with which other people are looking are you, you at once get braver and stronger. This was how it was this time when we evacuated kids from a resort facility,” David Vasilian recalls. “Seven officers carried more than 400 kids to a safe place. Such mission motivates us to rectify the consequences of the damage better than a training of any kind.” 

The dwellers of inundated houses continue to gradually receive reimbursements. Say, in Anapa and its rural districts eight application reception points were opened. 

“Depending on the type of the damage, residents of Anapa may get 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 roubles,” a spokesperson of the Mayor’s Office explained. 

Last week, Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratiev visited the inundated areas and ordered that drainage canals be entered in the master plans of the seaside towns and cities. Anna Romanovskaya, Director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, enumerated four Russian regions that are more than others exposed to climatic changes. Krasnodar krai is one of these areas which may expect most serious consequences of climatic change. 

On September 1, not all educational establishments will open in the Kuban region: 41 schools and kindergartens bore damages due to the impact of the mesocyclone. As a result, the remedial school in Anapa and the kindergarten in Defanovka, Tuapse rayon will not open in the beginning of the new school year.

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