Horrific floods devastate Ukraine and Romania
Pastor Dale Morgan
Horrific floods devastate Ukraine and Romania*
Reuters
Sunday, July 27, 2008; 10:09 AM
KIEV (Reuters) - Floods described by a senior government official as the
worst in a century have killed 13 people in western Ukraine and four in
neighboring Romania, officials said on Sunday.
Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry said water levels were dangerously high
on the Prut and Dnestr rivers after five days of non-stop rain. More
than 20,000 homes have been flooded and 7,000 people evacuated, many by
boat or helicopter, it said.
At least five of the dead were children and two had been struck by
lightning, the ministry said. Two people were missing.
Television footage showed houses cut off by rising waters, rescuers
moving down flooded streets on inflatable rafts and roads falling into
rushing rivers.
"The situation is very difficult. Ukraine has seen nothing like this for
100 years," Ukrainian media quoted First Deputy Chairman Oleksander
Turchynov as saying from the region. He said more funds would be needed
in the 2008 budget to repair damage.
President Viktor Yushchenko flew to the worst affected area in the
Ivano-Frankivsk region after leaving early a service in Kiev marking the
1,020th anniversary of the adoption of Orthodox Christianity in the region.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was also touring the region, where
three-quarters of the crops had been destroyed.
In Romania, a child drowned and three people were killed when a house
collapsed into swirling flood water in northeastern Maramures county.
Two people were missing.
About 9,000 people from 200 villages were evacuated as rain damaged over
2,000 houses and 19,000 hectares of farmland.
Authorities deployed 3,000 police and troops to pack dams with sandbags
as swollen waters from Ukraine were expected to hit Romania again later
in the day.
"We have two critical situations, on the rivers Siret and Prut," Prime
Minister Calin Tariceanu said.
"So you understand the gravity of the situation, water levels on the
river Prut next to the borders with Ukraine and Moldova are higher than
on the Danube."
Rain was forecast in both countries later in the day.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski in Kiev and Marius Zaharia in Bucharest,
editing by Tim Pearce)