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UKRAINE-ENVIRONMENT-DISASTER-FLOOD
Ukraine flooding leaves three dead, hundreds homeless
KIEV, June 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Three people have died and hundreds have fled their homes in western Ukraine following the worst flooding in a decade, authorities said Wednesday.
“The situation is critical,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmygal who flew to the disaster zone with the interior minister and the head of the emergency services.
Floods caused by heavy rains that began this week hit 200 villages, damaging 5,000 homes and forcing the evacuation of 800 people, the interior ministry said.
The worst-hit region is Ivano-Frankivsk on the Romanian border.
The flooding forced the evacuation of a hospital in the city of Galych.
“The situation is complicated by the fact that there are patients with the coronavirus,” he added.
Around 70 percent of monthly rainfall in some regions fell over several days, said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
More than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of road and around 90 bridges have been destroyed, the interior ministry said.
Authorities were to start deliveries of food by helicopter to villages cut off by the flood waters.
The scale of this flood already exceeded the one in 2008, when 39 people were killed in western Ukraine, Shmygal said.
Due to heavy rains on Tuesday, there was a sharp rise in the water level of the Tysa river, in some places by four-five metres.
Some experts blame large-scale and often illegal logging operations in the Carpathian mountains for removing trees that would normally help contain the run-off.
BSS/AFP/MSY/2000 HRS