Flooding in Kherson, Ukraine: a desperate situation since the end of the Dnipro river war and the fate of humanitarian aid
Even if they could use their phones, people were afraid to use them in the city because of the spotty internet and cellular service. “All the people are exhausted,” she said as she shared with a reporter the conversations on the secure Telegram channel on her phone. “They are on the edge. They have no rights.”
Svitlana Sitnik, 52 a volunteer from a different organization, said her aunt was in one of the towns on the east bank occupied by the Russians, Oleshky, and she was in contact with people there via a private Telegram channel. They painted a dire situation for the people there as Russian soldiers kept patrolling the streets and refused to help.
The war lasted over 15 months. , Ukrainian volunteer organizations have become adept at responding quickly to emergencies. But rising waters from a breached dam was a totally new challenge. Olha Napkhanenko, 40, a volunteer with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, said that her colleagues in the city of Kherson reported only about 5 percent of the city being severely affected as of noon, but that the situation could get worse.
After the detonation of a dam on the Dnipro River, a surge of water burst from the bottom, unlike a missile strike that can cause immediate destruction.
An emergency train pulled out of the station in the southern port city of Mykolaiv to bring people fleeing the rising waters in Kherson. Humanitarian groups are just starting to arrive to help those who were forced from their homes by the flooding.
The scale of the disaster has yet to come into focus for a lot of people living in areas that may be flooded.
The situation is hard emotionally and psychologically, he said while unpacking humanitarian aid. People don’t know what happened. They have failed to realize that this is a catastrophe.
With communications spotty, he said it was difficult to get accurate information about the state of the flooding. The city of Kherson straddles the Dnipro River, which has become a front line in the war, dividing the warring armies.
The western bank, which is where the majority of Kherson’s residents live and work, is controlled by Ukraine, retaken last fall after eight months of Russian occupation. Some neighborhoods are close to the river bank where flooding has already been reported and it sits on elevated land. The east bank of the Russian controlled city has islands and marshes and many country homes accessible only by boat, before the dam was breeched.
Alim, who was texting from Kherson, said that people in the lower part of the city were in a state of fear. “Some are moving stuff to the upper floors and roofs of their houses, while others are packing the cars and trying to leave,” he wrote.
Buses were being organized to take people from their home to the train station, but only about 30 people were registered to take the first 10-car train as of 12 p.m. local time. Hundreds of beds are ready for people who were forced to leave their homes in Mykolaiv, said Mr. Chupyna.