Floods devastate Zakarpattia region
by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau
TEKOVO, Ukraine - As floodwaters from the Tysa River approached the village of Tekovo, located in the poor Zakarpattia region of western Ukraine near the Hungarian and Slovak borders, few of its residents were unaware of the looming danger. They expected, however, that it would be like 1998, when extensive flooding in the region only touched them. While many surrounding villages suffered that year, in Tekovo water flooded the street and surrounding fields, but barely reached most homes. This time the villagers were not as lucky.
Tekovo, along with the neighboring hamlets of Sasovo and Chornotysiv, took the brunt of the water from the Tysa River on March 5-6 as it rushed down from the highlands over the railroad tracks and into these low-lying areas. Shocked villagers watched in horror as the water washed into town in the afternoon and then steadily rose throughout the evening and into the night, for 14 hours in all, collapsing walls and ceilings, and causing destruction the likes of which this village had rarely seen.
Before the onslaught finally began to recede just as the sun rose, the water had reached nearly two meters in some of the homes, as evidenced by the watermarks left behind.
It was the second time in less than two years that the Tysa River overflowed its banks and rampaged through Zakarpattia, this time taking six victims, while leaving behind tens of thousands of homeless, and mass destruction estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.
Fully one-third of Tekovo's buildings, mostly homes but also the local schoolhouse, collapsed or were badly damaged by the assault of water that persisted through the night of terror the villagers experienced.
"It was like the ocean tide coming onto the beach, but it kept coming and coming," explained Maria Moshkola, 44, whose house was devastated by the floodwaters. "I don't think anyone in the village slept the whole night. We just kept running around trying to stay safe and wondering how it would all end."
Vasyl Serbak sent his wife, their two kids and her mother to relatives after the water entered his house that Monday evening. He decided to stay to do what he could to salvage the family's belongings and furniture, and to guard against thieves and scavengers.
He never expected that Mother Nature would claim his home.
At about 2 a.m., as water ran above his hips, Mr. Serbak said he began to look to move to a higher elevation when he heard a vibrating noise. He saw a great crack appear on the outer wall of his building. Then, beginning from the back of the house, the wall slowly buckled forward and fell, followed by the roof.
"I just ran - it scared me to my bones," said the 39-year-old farmer.
The next morning, truck driver Ivan Svaliavyn, who lives in Mukachiv, a city about an hour's drive from the epicenter of the devastation, arrived to help with rescue operations. He was amazed by what he saw.
"It was just unbelievable - carcasses of pigs, rabbits, rats, dogs, cats and even ducks, all floating down the street," explained Mr. Svaliavyn.
In the village of Tekovo alone the water destroyed 265 homes, flooded another 500 and left 600 people homeless. In Sasovo 220 houses succumbed to the ravaging waters, 345 were flooded and 497 people were left seeking shelter, while in Chornotysiv the water took 300 buildings, flooded 692 and displaced 120 individuals.
During two terror-filled days the raging waters of the Tysa River, engorged by a quick snow melt and more than half a meter of rain during the March 3 weekend, destroyed more than 1,200 buildings and flooded another 30,000 in 240 population centers of the Zakarpattia region. Nearly 15,000 people were evacuated or left homeless, about 14,000 relocated with relatives.
Fifty-two people have been hospitalized and six deaths are attributed to the flooding. Five of the victims were elderly and succumbed to heart attacks, while the body of one, believed to be a drowning victim, was found floating in the waters.
The flood also caused much damage to the region's infrastructure. Fifteen population centers were left without any electricity. Three bridges were destroyed and five others were damaged, while 14 roads remain impassable, as do eight rail lines. As of March 15, nine villages were still not accessible by conventional means.
While Hanna Romanenchuk, head of the press center of the Zakarpattia Oblast, said this flood and the devastation it wrought might match the 1998 one in terms of monetary damage, statistics show that the Tysa was easier on the region this year.
In 1998 roiling waters consumed 118 villages, along with the cities of Mukachiv, Khust and Tiachiv. The flooding caused 20 deaths and left 24,000 homeless. Although the Tysa River's water level rose higher this time, peaking at 13.47 meters above normal on March 10 near the border town of Chop, which surpassed the 1998 level of 13.26 meters, the new dams and the higher embankments built after 1998 helped to minimized the damage.
"If it wasn't for the new dams and the new bank reinforcements the force of the river had the ability to remove Zakarpattia from the face of the earth," said Ms. Romanenchuk.
The calamity began when warm weather followed a fresh snowfall on March 3. The next day a torrential rain dropped 40-centimeters of water on the region in an hour and over half a meter (nearly two feet) in the course of 24 hours, causing the Tysa, a narrow and swift river that is the main waterway in the region, to swell and overflow its banks.
While most dams held, some of those that had not yet been completed as part of the rebuilding projects from 1998 failed, causing more problems, according to Ms. Romanenchuk.
A journalist from the region who wished to remain anonymous had another reason to add to the list of causes of the catastrophe. He suggested that an investigation should be conducted to determine the quality of the building materials that went into the six major dams that failed, which he said were Ukrainian-built.
"The ones built by the Hungarians and the Czechs held, but ours didn't," explained the reporter. "I just wonder whether all the concrete that was dedicated to the various dam projects found its way there. I have heard otherwise," confided the reporter.
The flooding problem was prolonged and the damage multiplied when Hungarian officials on March 11 ordered the bursting of a local dam to redirect waters away from several cities, including the Ukrainian border town of Chop, which caused flooding in several Ukrainian villages that earlier had not been affected. The part of Hungary that borders the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine also suffers from chronic flooding problems, and some observers here said this time the flooding on the Hungarian side was more severe, while in 1998 Ukraine took the harder hit.
The Ukrainian villages of Soniashne, Lypove and Dzvinkove were covered with water as a result of the Hungarian action, causing the dislocation of another 3,000 people. These villages, while inundated with water up to half a meter in depth, did not suffer the extensive devastation of the first villages flooded because the water did not surge in but dispersed through the area slowly, covering mostly agricultural land. However, many of the homes were lost anyway because the majority of them are built from mudpack and clay, which dissolves when left standing in water.
Residents of another village, Popove, on March 13 prepared for the arrival of water by packing sandbags to reinforce the banks of a small tributary of the Tysa that cuts through their hamlet. They were hoping that a shift in wind and a lack of rain might save their homes.
Ms. Romanenchuk said flooding is a perpetual problem for Zakarpattia with certain areas experiencing up to 15 minor floods annually. While some put a portion of the blame for the latest flood on weak dams, Ms. Romanenchuk said a major contributor was the last decade's uncontrolled de-forestation of highlands, which has laid barren thousands of acres of mountainous watersheds. She also said that at some places the water simply climbed over the dams - at times by as much as a meter.
The oblast spokesperson said the Cabinet of Ministers is developing a project to build a hydroelectric dam along with a system of canals and reservoirs to reduce the pressure on the Tysa and its two main arteries, the Latorytsia and Borzhava rivers.
Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Ivan Zayets said during a press conference in Kyiv on March 14 that Ukraine must work more closely with Hungarian and Romanian authorities to develop a complex international program of flood prevention. He also praised the relief work, which he said is much better organized than the emergency efforts of 1998.
President Leonid Kuchma traveled to the region on March 9. One of his stops was in Tekovo, where he reviewed the situation and the relief work, and called for domestic and international aid for the inhabitants.
There is a chronic shortage of food, water, bedding, clothing and shoes in the area. Neighboring Hungary, which has sent 15 truckloads, and Russia, which has sent 30, are leading the international humanitarian relief effort, while about a dozen other European countries have dispatched one and two truckloads.
An official at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said the United States would allocate aid through the U.S. Agency for International Development. In the past the agency has funneled financing through a trustworthy charitable organization, which then distributed the aid to those affected.
While in the Zakarpattia region, President Kuchma also reviewed the work of the more than 1,000-strong Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) relief force that has descended on the area, bringing with it five helicopters and scores of bulldozers and tractors. In general, the MES workers are responsible for rebuilding embankments and dams, rejoining rail track, fixing roads and helping to rebuild the infrastructure.
In Tekovo the work took on a more personal quality as the workers, dressed in army fatigues, helped homeowners take down their unsalvageable buildings and dig out those that could be saved. They also helped distribute humanitarian aid, including bread and water.
Local charitable projects also were evident. Volunteers from the Mukachiv Baptist Church drove down Tekovo's only thoroughfare on March 13 to distribute donated clothing. The villagers warmly greeted the van with its red cross pasted on the windshield and accepted the gifts, which included a Bible for each family.
For many it was the knowledge that help was available and on the way that kept them from utter despair.
Yulia Fozikosh, 70, stood outside of a flattened house, which for 30 years had been her home, and with raised arms cried her woes. She said that when the water came rushing in, she had refused to leave, even as a neighbor insisted that she do so. But as the water rose she finally agreed to climb into a rowboat and travel to safety, only to watch her house collapse. She explained that she has no one to help her rebuild her home and her life.
"I must put my fate into the hands of God and these people. I am by myself and do not have the strength to go it alone," said Ms. Fozikosh.
ZAKARPATTIA FLOOD RELIEF EFFORTS
UNWLA aims to provide medicines
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 18, 2001, No. 11, Vol. LXIX
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