Thousands of Khersons were really racing against time when the Kakhovka Dam burst, causing floodwaters to quickly rise and gradually engulf everything.
As the shelling from the fighting between Russian forces and Ukraine still echoed overhead, many civilians in the city of Kherson on the west bank of the Dnieper River on June 6 rushed to evacuate trucks and makeshift wooden rafts. At their feet, floodwaters rose minute by minute, as the Kakhovka Dam north of the city broke.
A woman wades through a flooded road in Kherson after the Kakhovka dam burst on June 6. Image: AP
The barking of the dogs left in the house further worsened the mood of the evacuees. A woman sitting on a raft hugs her daughter as she trembles in fear. A dead military truck stuck in rising water added to the panic, even as Red Cross volunteer teams tried to ensure an orderly evacuation.
No one knows how high the floodwaters pouring down from the Kakhovka Dam will be, or whether people and livestock will be able to escape the danger zone. The evacuation is the latest demonstration of the turmoil people have endured because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict over the past year or so.
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of Kherson province under the Ukrainian government, said that nearly 1.600 houses on the west bank of the Dnieper river had been submerged by floodwaters and that about 42.000 people on both sides of the river were in danger from rising water levels. By June 7, Ukrainian authorities had evacuated 6 people along the river to cities like Mykolaiv and Odesa in the west.
On the other side, in an area controlled by Russia, about 22.000 people live in areas at risk of being submerged by floodwaters. The Russian-appointed Kherson provincial government has declared a state of emergency, as 2.700 homes have been flooded and nearly 1.300 people have been evacuated to safety.
The devastation of the dam failure on the lower Dnieper River. Video: Rus Vesna
Nadejda Chernishova, 65, breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped off a rubber dinghy that carried her out of her flooded home in the city of Kherson.
"I'm not afraid now, but when I was in the house, I really panicked," Chernishova said. "The floodwaters were coming from all sides and I didn't know where it was going."
Her home is located in one of the lowest districts in Kherson city, so there was no escape from the flood. "In the morning everything was fine, but then the water rose almost immediately," she said.
Chernishova left almost everything behind, taking only what she could gather, including two suitcases and some of her most valuable possessions.
“This is my beautiful cat Sonechka,” she said, lifting the lid of the small pet cage, inside which was a frightened animal. “It was very scary. It is a domestic cat that has never been out.”
Rescue workers pull boats carrying residents to evacuate a flooded area in Kherson on June 6. Image: AP
Chernishova was among the first to be evacuated from the city of Kherson by Ukrainian authorities, when floodwaters began to overflow several blocks and flood the city center, completely cutting off some areas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that hundreds of thousands of people living on both sides of the Dnieper River lack clean water due to floods. He stated that evacuating people and providing clean water are the two top priorities right now in Kherson.
Governor Prokudin, who has overseen rescue efforts in towns and cities in the lower Dnieper River, said the operation was becoming increasingly difficult as floodwaters rose.
"In the morning we could evacuate with cars, then trucks, but now big cars can't pass," he said. “The water was so high that we had to use boats. About eight boats of all kinds are working at full capacity to bring people out of the area."
A neighborhood in downtown Kherson was completely submerged by floodwater in less than 60 minutes. The water level rose so clearly that it was visible to the naked eye.
"It's all under water, furniture, fridge, food, everything," said Oskana resident, 53, when asked about the condition of her home in Kherson.
In unsupported places, people are forced to wade through knee-deep water to evacuate, carry plastic bags to store possessions or keep small pets in baby carriages.
In a front-line city like Kherson, which was regularly shelled, rising waters added to the danger.
“Besides floodwater, landmines are also a huge risk factor, because floodwaters carry floating mines that can explode at any moment,” Prokudin said. “But we will be racing against time, lifeguards will not rest. We will change shifts and get people out of harm's way if needed."
By June 7, flooding had peaked in the city of Nova Kakhovka at the foot of the dam, after submerging the area under 6 meters of water. Floods are also expected to soon peak downstream and gradually recede.
Location of Kakhovka hydroelectric dam. Graphics: DW
In the midst of the intermittent firecrackers, search and rescue operations were still going on urgently. The soldiers and aid workers did not appear confused or bewildered.
The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River, in Russian-controlled territory in Kherson Province, burst on June 6, sending 6 billion cubic meters of water into towns and arable lands downstream. Russia and Ukraine both consider the Kakhovka dam failure to be a deliberate attack and blame each other.
While the Ukrainian government accused Russia of blowing up the Kakhovka dam to try to prevent it from launching a counter-offensive, Moscow said that Kiev's shelling damaged the dam in order to deprive the Crimean peninsula of water and distract the public from the massive counter-offensive.
“The reaction of the West in such situations is entirely predictable. Their ultimate desire is to blame Russia for everything that happens, regardless of whether it actually happens or is just a fantasy. Their reaction will always be the same,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on June 7.
While the sides blamed each other, many civilians in Kherson were left empty-handed after experiencing many losses in the war. "Everything was submerged," Chernishova said as she loaded her suitcase and bag with Sonechka's cat into the vehicle that took her to the evacuation.
Vu Hoang (Follow CNN, AP, Guardian)
