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Less than a week after devastating flash floods virtually destroyed a town in southern Russia's Krasnodar region, killing at least 171 people, efforts to make sense of the disaster are underscoring a deepening crisis of confidence in both local and federal authorities.

file photo
Over a thousand volunteers from neighboring districts and from Moscow have flocked to the floodravaged area of Krymsk to bring donated food, clothes and other necessities to over 34,000 people affected by the floods.

Unusually heavy torrential rain sparked landslides and flash floods that swept up some 5,000 homes in the coastal towns of Krymsk, Gelendzhik and Novorossiisk on the night of July 7. At least 400 homes were entirely destroyed.

Reports appeared on the following day that water released from swelling reservoirs nearby was responsible for the floods, with many locals accusing authorities of opening the floodgates deliberately on Krymsk to save the more heavily populated Novorossiisk. Failure to warn residents of pending floods and launch evacuation efforts led to accusations of negligence against local authorities and the Krasnodar region governor, Alexander Tkachyov.

A somber President Vladimir Putin flew to Krymsk on Saturday, surveying affected areas from an airplane. He pledged 2 million rubles ($60,900) to flood victims' families and ordered an investigation into whether residents had been properly alerted. Yet he did not meet with locals ­ a stark contrast from the summer of 2010, when, on a visit, he was accosted by residents who had lost homes during a spate of deadly forest fires.

While investigators confirmed that water was indeed released from reservoirs, authorities say it had not caused the floods.

But the Investigative Committee has admitted that residents were not alerted about the floods in time, RIA Novosti reported.

Tkachyov promised that regional authorities would build some 800 new houses for families left homeless by the floods. He fired Krymsk district head Vasily Krutko, accused of evacuating his family hours before the floods, for negligence.

Krutko was reported to have fled on Thursday, fearing attacks from local residents.

Deep mistrust

Yet compensation packages and confirmed evidence that torrential rains ­ rather than reservoir water ­ caused the destruction did little to restore trust in local and federal authorities.

"I will probably get fired now, but I cannot lie ­ there was no warning before the flood," Natalia Usova, general director of a local television station, was quoted by the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta as saying. "I got a call from [a correspondent] from her flooded home, panicking that the water was rising. We issued a warning only at three in the morning."

Ilya Ponomaryov, a State Duma deputy and opposition leader who traveled to Krymsk to aid in rescue efforts, says locals he spoke to are so distrustful of authorities that conspiracy theories are thriving.

"I'm inclined to believe what the authorities say is the reason for the flood," Ponomaryov, who returned from Krymsk on Tuesday, told The Moscow News. "But the local population is entirely convinced that the reservoir is at fault, and no facts or evidence to the contrary will convince them."

Oleg Mitvol, a former deputy head of the Federal Service for the Inspection of Natural Resources Use, is convinced that a combination of factors ­ including human error involving reservoirs ­ was behind the tragedy. But the government's key mistake was failure to properly explain what had happened.

"Even the president was misinformed," Mitvol told The Moscow News. "When there are inconsistencies, there is panic."

Mitvol added that "Tkachyov was insensitive in his addresses," referencing the fact that the governor had insisted that the early warning system functioned sufficiently well.

Conflicting reports

Some independent estimates citing rescuers and medics placed the death toll as high as 2,000 people. But even official numbers varied ­ with the Health Ministry citing 165 people and the Emergency Situations Ministry citing 171 people.

Ponomaryov believes authorities are underestimating the number of those killed. "Rescuers and medics place the number closer to 2,000, and when I traveled outside of Krymsk the level of destruction in other places suggested more people had died," he said.

That has happened before in the Krasnodar region, Ponomaryov added, but nowadays, distrust is more widespread. "The level of alienation between the government and the people has reached catastrophic proportions," he said. "Even those people who voted for Putin and United Russia don't trust them anymore. They just don't have anyone else to trust."

Ponomaryov said the focus needed to be more on rescue efforts than politicking, however. A prominent oppositionist leader from the Just Russia party, Ponomaryov had joined forces with his political rival Robert Shlegel, a young Duma deputy from the United Russia party, in trying to get aid to the locals.

"Most people in the area are far less interested in how the authorities are investigating the disaster than in restoring their lives," Shlegel, who was in Krymsk on Wednesday, told The Moscow News. "They are concerned with rebuilding and getting compensation."

Shlegel attributed the level of mistrust to what he called an excess of armchair experts. "I have no reason not to trust investigators who are professionally working to establish what happened," he said.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but now the question of when people will get the water out of their homes, when electricity and water supplies will be restored ­ that is coming into view."

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia, Disasters - Russian News - Russia

 

Less than a week after devastating flash floods virtually destroyed a town in southern Russia's Krasnodar region, killing at least 171 people, efforts to make sense of the disaster are underscoring a deepening crisis of confidence in both local and federal authorities.

file photo
Over a thousand volunteers from neighboring districts and from Moscow have flocked to the floodravaged area of Krymsk to bring donated food, clothes and other necessities to over 34,000 people affected by the floods.

Unusually heavy torrential rain sparked landslides and flash floods that swept up some 5,000 homes in the coastal towns of Krymsk, Gelendzhik and Novorossiisk on the night of July 7. At least 400 homes were entirely destroyed.

Reports appeared on the following day that water released from swelling reservoirs nearby was responsible for the floods, with many locals accusing authorities of opening the floodgates deliberately on Krymsk to save the more heavily populated Novorossiisk. Failure to warn residents of pending floods and launch evacuation efforts led to accusations of negligence against local authorities and the Krasnodar region governor, Alexander Tkachyov.

A somber President Vladimir Putin flew to Krymsk on Saturday, surveying affected areas from an airplane. He pledged 2 million rubles ($60,900) to flood victims' families and ordered an investigation into whether residents had been properly alerted. Yet he did not meet with locals ­ a stark contrast from the summer of 2010, when, on a visit, he was accosted by residents who had lost homes during a spate of deadly forest fires.

While investigators confirmed that water was indeed released from reservoirs, authorities say it had not caused the floods.

But the Investigative Committee has admitted that residents were not alerted about the floods in time, RIA Novosti reported.

Tkachyov promised that regional authorities would build some 800 new houses for families left homeless by the floods. He fired Krymsk district head Vasily Krutko, accused of evacuating his family hours before the floods, for negligence.

Krutko was reported to have fled on Thursday, fearing attacks from local residents.

Deep mistrust

Yet compensation packages and confirmed evidence that torrential rains ­ rather than reservoir water ­ caused the destruction did little to restore trust in local and federal authorities.

"I will probably get fired now, but I cannot lie ­ there was no warning before the flood," Natalia Usova, general director of a local television station, was quoted by the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta as saying. "I got a call from [a correspondent] from her flooded home, panicking that the water was rising. We issued a warning only at three in the morning."

Ilya Ponomaryov, a State Duma deputy and opposition leader who traveled to Krymsk to aid in rescue efforts, says locals he spoke to are so distrustful of authorities that conspiracy theories are thriving.

"I'm inclined to believe what the authorities say is the reason for the flood," Ponomaryov, who returned from Krymsk on Tuesday, told The Moscow News. "But the local population is entirely convinced that the reservoir is at fault, and no facts or evidence to the contrary will convince them."

Oleg Mitvol, a former deputy head of the Federal Service for the Inspection of Natural Resources Use, is convinced that a combination of factors ­ including human error involving reservoirs ­ was behind the tragedy. But the government's key mistake was failure to properly explain what had happened.

"Even the president was misinformed," Mitvol told The Moscow News. "When there are inconsistencies, there is panic."

Mitvol added that "Tkachyov was insensitive in his addresses," referencing the fact that the governor had insisted that the early warning system functioned sufficiently well.

Conflicting reports

Some independent estimates citing rescuers and medics placed the death toll as high as 2,000 people. But even official numbers varied ­ with the Health Ministry citing 165 people and the Emergency Situations Ministry citing 171 people.

Ponomaryov believes authorities are underestimating the number of those killed. "Rescuers and medics place the number closer to 2,000, and when I traveled outside of Krymsk the level of destruction in other places suggested more people had died," he said.

That has happened before in the Krasnodar region, Ponomaryov added, but nowadays, distrust is more widespread. "The level of alienation between the government and the people has reached catastrophic proportions," he said. "Even those people who voted for Putin and United Russia don't trust them anymore. They just don't have anyone else to trust."

Ponomaryov said the focus needed to be more on rescue efforts than politicking, however. A prominent oppositionist leader from the Just Russia party, Ponomaryov had joined forces with his political rival Robert Shlegel, a young Duma deputy from the United Russia party, in trying to get aid to the locals.

"Most people in the area are far less interested in how the authorities are investigating the disaster than in restoring their lives," Shlegel, who was in Krymsk on Wednesday, told The Moscow News. "They are concerned with rebuilding and getting compensation."

Shlegel attributed the level of mistrust to what he called an excess of armchair experts. "I have no reason not to trust investigators who are professionally working to establish what happened," he said.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but now the question of when people will get the water out of their homes, when electricity and water supplies will be restored ­ that is coming into view."

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