Residents of the Middle Urals, who became victims of floods last spring, are surprised by the position of the regional government, which is making plans for the coming flood without still compensating the victims for damages for 2016. Citizens had to rebuild their homes at their own expense, buy firewood in the winter that was carried away by the high water, and independently prepare for the next disaster. Many have fallen into debt and are ready for tent rallies near the administration buildings. About how difficult the situation is in the province now, which regional authorities are trying not to see, is in our material.
They've been waiting for promised compensation for a year
As an NDNews.ru correspondent reports, so far the victims of the 2016 flood have received only 10 thousand “moral” sums as a one-time payment. This process began in August last year after the residents of the Urals wrote an angry letter to the President of the Russian Federation. The regional government began to allocate funds from the regional reserve fund. Subsidies in the amount of 21 million rubles were given to the Irbitsky district, Garyam, Verkhoturye, Slobodo-Turinsky municipal district and Turinsky district, where more than 2 thousand people suffered from spring water. But the issue of compensation for material damage in the form of 50 thousand rubles remained hanging in the air. This situation, in particular, arose in Irbit, whose authorities had a long legal battle with the prosecutor’s office over who was entitled to this amount (you can read more about this protracted confrontation).
In short: officials decided that 50 thousand should be paid only to those registered in the houses, but subject to the provision of registration certificates, warranty cards and sales receipts for furniture, household appliances and other property damaged by water, as well as expert opinions. Most of them have not preserved such documents. Ultimately, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court indicated: compensation of 50 thousand is due to each victim of the disaster. And since the flood in Irbit was recognized as a federal emergency, funds must be allocated from the reserve fund of the Russian government.
However, as residents of Irbit told NDNews.ru today, they have not yet received these compensations. “A meeting is scheduled for March 24 at the Irbit administration with the participation of the prosecutor’s office. The main question on the agenda is whether the regional government will provide subsidies for the payment of compensation in the amount of 50 thousand rubles. Now it turns out that local authorities were late in submitting documents for compensation for material damage; the deadlines have passed. By law, lists must be provided within three months of the occurrence of an emergency. Our state of emergency was officially declared on April 13, 2016, and the lists were sent to the regional government only in January... – one of the victims, Olga Popova, noted in a conversation with an agency correspondent. – The situation is confusing, twofold. On the one hand, new budgets are being drawn up. And at the same time, the regional government cannot say “no” to the local authorities, since they will set them up, and there will be a new trial. But no one says “yes” on compensation either.”
“The tents are ready to be set up at City Hall!”
According to the agency’s interlocutor, in the absence of feasible assistance from the authorities, residents of Irbit have had to rely only on themselves over the past months. At first, they restored the damaged property and made repairs at their own expense. In order not to freeze in the winter, they bought firewood, which was carried away by the high water, using money borrowed from friends and acquaintances. “They say the flood will be worse this year. And if we are not paid the due compensation, we will go around the world! We will have no choice but to set up tents at the city hall. We are ready for this. People have nothing to eat, and this is not an exaggeration,” Popova said.
It is worth noting that at today’s meeting of the government of the Sverdlovsk region, both Governor Evgeny Kuyvashev and Minister of Public Security Alexander Kudryavtsev recommended that residents of “dangerous” territories quickly insure their personal property so that last year’s situation would not be repeated, when people lost their property and were then forced out of the authorities for months compensation. This idea did not arouse enthusiasm among the mayor of Irbit, Gennady Agafonov. “Citizens are somehow not particularly active... and insurers are not very willing to work in such places,” the mayor said.
The same Olga Popova explained to NDNews.ru why property insurance raised new questions. “This year we had to insure our property for 1.5 million rubles. Insurance cost 15 thousand rubles. And at least there would be some kind of subsidization! At least 30 percent. None of this happened. Again, they did everything with their last money, no help from the authorities... There is another important point here. An insured event occurs only in the event of an emergency. And without it, even if the water has already entered the house, insurers have the right to refuse payments. Let’s see what happens,” concluded the Irbit resident.
Agafonov, by the way, at today’s government meeting said that in the worst case scenario, 87 houses and 127 household plots could end up in the flood zone. Up to 500 people live in the “dangerous” territory of Irbit, including 69 children.
In general, according to the forecasts of the Sverdlovsk authorities, this year the flood may flood 11 settlements, 223 houses, inhabited by 335 people. 76 settlements may be cut off from regular routes of communication. In the “risk zone” are Irbit, Irbitsky district, Karpinsk, Krasnoufimsky district, Gornouralsky municipal district, Slobodo-Turinsky and Baikalovsky municipal districts, Makhnevskoye municipal district, Turinsky and Talitsky district districts, Achita district, Nizhny Tagil and Pervouralsky district, as well as Staroutkinsk. The exact dates for the passage of flood waters are not yet known - the opening of the rivers is expected in the second half of April. At the same time, this year’s flood is predicted to be stronger and more dangerous than last year due to the snowy winter.
There are severe floods in the Urals and the Far East. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there are more than 60 settlements in the flood zone, where almost three thousand people live. In the Sverdlovsk region, in the flood zone of the city of Irbit, the water level in the Nitsa River exceeded the dangerous 7-meter mark. A state of emergency is in effect. The Ministry of Emergency Situations evacuates both people and animals. A local farm is rescuing a population of ostriches. But the most tense situation remains in the Tyumen region.
You can walk down the street, but only in a special suit. The Ishim region has turned into a full-flowing river, but it shouldn’t get any worse - the peak of the flood is now being observed. The water level in the Karasul River, which has caused so many problems, is now at 666 centimeters.
This flood has already been called the strongest in half a century of history. The reason was heavy rainfall and early spring. They were not ready for this. Now there are 580 houses, schools and a kindergarten in water captivity. The streets where people walked calmly can now only be navigated by boats. Bus stops, cars and residential buildings were under water. The disaster also reached the railway's traction power substation. To eliminate the consequences, specialists deployed a fire train.
“There are results, the water level has dropped by 5 centimeters,” reports the head of the fire train at the Ishim station, Evgeny Tarasov.
More than a thousand residents were evacuated from flooded areas. About 200 people were placed in temporary accommodation centers - in health camps and hotels in Ishim.
“We had water under the windowsill, it was impossible to stay there. But here it’s good, the food is good and the attitude is good,” explains evacuee Tatyana Golitsyna.
Already today, compensation has begun to be paid to those affected by the disaster: for each house, 50 thousand rubles for priority needs - clothing, food.
Due to the flood, the local water utility also switched to increased operating mode. To avoid intestinal infections, it was decided to increase the amount of reagents for purifying tap water.
Work at the emergency site continues. The flood area is patrolled around the clock by about 100 police officers on boats and motorboats. There have already been attempts at looting, but the police are trying to keep the situation under control.
“Three citizens of Ishim broke into a store, where they were detained red-handed while on patrol,” explains Alexander Maltsev, deputy chief of police for public order protection of the Ishimsky intermunicipal department of internal affairs.
At night, it is fundamentally unsafe to be on the streets of the flooded Ishim district, primarily due to the strong current.
“A man was walking along the street and he was swept away,” the rescuers explain.
Was he walking along the road?
“I was walking along the sidewalk. But the sidewalk is even lower than the road,” the rescuers answer.
The search continued for half an hour. The local police officer was able to locate the resident of Ishim only with the help of a boat - the man was carried three hundred meters away by the current. Now his life and health are not in danger.
March 14th. /TASS/. Floods in the regions of the Ural Federal District (Ural Federal District), according to hydrologists’ forecasts, should pass without any particular complications in 2017. In most reservoirs of the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, and Chelyabinsk regions, the water level is expected to exceed the norm by half a meter to a meter, Neli Miroshnikova, head of the hydrological forecasts department of the Hydrometeorological Center of the Ural UGMS, told TASS.
According to her, the situation in the region is more favorable than in 2016, when some regions of the Urals Federal District experienced the most severe flood in the last 40 years.
Snow factor
"In most areas, snow accumulation is now exceeding the norm for this period (March). The excess is 15-30% of the long-term average values. Moreover, somewhere this standard has been exceeded even more, for example, in the northern basin of the Tobol River, Kurgan region, in the south "in the west of the Sverdlovsk region, in the mountainous part of the Chelyabinsk region. In the far north of the Middle Urals, on the contrary, snow reserves do not exceed the long-term average values," the hydrologist said.
Miroshnikova emphasized that despite the large amount of snow, the condition of the basins does not yet cause concern among experts, as was the case last year, and they do not yet predict the passage of a complex flood, which was observed in 2016. Hydrologists expect the peaks of spring floods in most regions of the Ural Federal District to be within normal limits and higher by 0.5-1 m. “Each river has its own level - somewhere a rise in water level of 3 m is already catastrophic, and somewhere 6 m is the norm . For now, we expect an excess of the norm by 2.5-3 m in the Tobol River near the city of Kurgan,” she clarified.
According to her, despite the mitigating factors regarding the flood, “regional authorities should not relax.” “We don’t have any forecasts for April yet. Consequently, if everything starts to melt sharply, the flood situation may worsen and flooding cannot be avoided,” Miroshnikova said.
The head of the department for rehabilitation of territories and protection of the population of the region, Sergei Ketov, noted that to carry out preventive measures, a group of more than 11 thousand people and 2 thousand pieces of equipment, 97 pieces of swimming equipment and 17 pieces of aircraft, including eight drones from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, was organized .
In the Trans-Ural region, 142 temporary accommodation points with a capacity of more than 20 thousand people have been identified and checked, eight permanent and 24 temporary gauging stations have been organized to monitor water levels.
According to the assistant commander of the Central Military District (CMD), Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin, specialists from the engineering troops will blast the ice on the Sim River near the city of Asha, Chelyabinsk Region, to prevent flooding of populated areas. He clarified that to destroy the ice, the thickness of which reaches 90 cm, sappers will use about a ton of explosives. Work is scheduled from Monday to Wednesday during daylight hours.
Flood control measures are coordinated by the regional control center of the headquarters of the Central Military District in Yekaterinburg, where monitoring of the situation in the reservoirs of the Volga region, Urals and Siberia is organized, interaction is established with local authorities and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.