2023-06-13 13:00:09
Eight days after the destruction, on the night of June 5 to 6, of the hydroelectric dam of Kakhovka and the floods having submerged a vast area on both banks of the Dnieper River, Kherson remains paralyzed by the drama. On the roads, cars tow small boats. The darkened faces of civilians appear behind the smoked windows of buses or vans on which posters “Evacuation” have been affixed. The western sector of this large Ukrainian city (about 20% of Kherson) is still partly submerged, even if the water level continues to drop, revealing, here and there, apartments and houses with facades covered with debris and mud.
Evacuations of residents trapped in flooded neighborhoods have been completed. “On the right bank of the river, everyone who wanted to evacuate has already been”, explains Andreï (who did not wish to give his name), 35, leaning on a restaurant table. The athletic and tanned resident of Kherson enjoys a break for lunch in a place busy with the many volunteers who come from all over Ukraine to provide aid to civilians.
The place is crowded with young people still wearing life jackets, even wetsuits. Since June 6, these volunteers have organized multiple kitties to finance humanitarian aid, the purchase of boats, water pumps… Many have also gone to flooded areas to evacuate civilians and pets, despite the risks. more and more frequent Russian bombardment.
According to the latest report from the Ukrainian authorities, 2,743 people were evacuated due to flooding in the Kherson region and 982 in the Mykolaiv region, which was also affected. In the first, forty-six localities remain flooded, including thirty-two in territory controlled by kyiv and fourteen in areas occupied by Moscow. In the area of Mykolaiv, thirty-one localities still remain under the waves.
Increasingly risky occupied areas
In Kherson, many residents affected by the floods preferred to stay on the floors of their homes. Andrei reports that they “are afraid of not having a place to take refuge or that their apartment will be robbed”. As a result, for the past few days, the priority of this volunteer and his companions has been to organize the follow-up, the cleaning of the areas damaged during the total drop in water. “We will definitely need generators, gas cylinders, and water pumps. »
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