On the night of the sixth to the seventh of July, the Russian city of Krymsk was shocked by a terrible tragedy. Due to the sharp rise in water level, the city of many thousands flooded almost completely in just fifteen minutes. Now that the water level has subsided, and first aid has been provided to the victims, the authorities are beginning to sort out what caused the tragedy.
The city was covered with a huge wave. Eyewitnesses diverge in their testimony when assessing its height, naming numbers from four to seven meters. The formation of such a giant water mass was allowed by the features of the Krymsk relief. The city is surrounded by mountains, whose ability to absorb water is small. Torrential rains in the region began on the fourth day, and in less than two days they exceeded the monthly norm by five times. The rocks were simply not able to absorb the next portion of precipitation, and as a result, moisture began to simply slide off the mountains and rushed to the city.
Adagum is the main river artery in the region. And she was unable to miss such an abundant flood expenses. On the way of the raging elements there were only minor obstacles in the form of a pedestrian and railway bridge, as well as a highway. Water easily bypassed obstacles and fell upon the city with all its might. The overwhelming flood was also facilitated by the fact that the floodplain of the river was built up by industrial enterprises. They are located including in water protection zones. The riverbed itself is polluted with household waste and in some areas pretty overgrown.
Water arrived very fast. Fifteen minutes was enough for most of the city to be under water. Residents simply did not have time to react and take measures, so the city has a huge number of victims of water. This happened due to a practically inoperative warning system. The equipment has not been tested and repaired for a long time, and when the disaster was about to strike, the locals could not find out about it in time due to faulty devices. Having discovered that the system was not working, the city leadership tried to notify the townspeople about the tragedy by knocking on the doors of the houses, but thus, of course, only a small percentage of people managed to find out about the impending disaster in time. It is the city’s authorities that are now the main accused in the case of the deaths of residents of Krymsk.
