Residents of Krymsk are sure that they were flooded due to gateway opening

At night on July 7, in the Krymsk District of the Krasnodar Territory water went up by four meters. The locals are convinced that the cause of flooding was the opening of floodgates of the Neverdjayev storage reservoir.

According to meteorologists, the rainfall level in Krymsk was the smallest of all the affected districts: in Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk it was about 300 mm – about half of the annual norm; and in the Krymsk District it was about half of that – 171 mm. The disaster area houses 12,000 residents, more than 4000 houses, and 12 social objects – schools, kindergartens and two medical warehouses.

"Local residents said that the calamity caught them at night, when they were in beds. Now, they are themselves cleaning debris, trying to rescue their property. Only gas service experts are touring the town," Alexei Mandrigelya, an activist of the Krasnodar Branch of the "Yabloko" Party, who is in Krymsk, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Ruined fences, dead animals and destruction are around. People say that the water reached the second level," a civic activist Anna Mikhailova describes the situation in Krymsk.

According to her story, Krymsk residents are sure the flooding was caused by opening of three floodgates of the reservoir at night.

"There were no warnings. It was either a water discharge or an accidentally dam failure. Our house is near the river; and every 15 minutes we went to look at the water level. We went to bed; then, opened the door, and here – the water rushed into the house," Lyudmila Arkhipova, a local resident, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, the water level reaches 3.4 meters. "Helicopters provided help. But people who live opposite to us spent more than 10 hours on the roof. To tell the truth, motor boats were at work, taking people away," the woman explained.

"Local residents are shocked by what happened. They suggest that the cause of the flood was in the opening of floodgates of the reservoir, or they just failed. Water went as a wall," the ecologist Suren Gazaryan, who is in Krymsk now, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.