Near Novorossiysk, 59 bodies of the dead have already been found. And the swimming season continues... Voronezh newspapers and fences are filled with advertisements of travel agencies inviting the public to rest in places where the tornado has just passed - in Anapa and Gelendzhik....

Near Novorossiysk, 59 bodies of the dead have already been found. And the bathing season continues...

IN

Oronezh newspapers and fences are filled with advertisements of travel agencies inviting the public to rest in places where a tornado has just passed - in Anapa and Gelendzhik. The Voronezh public is in no hurry to these parts. On the evening of August 10, ten people came to train No. 30 Moscow - Novorossiysk. In fact, there were a lot of people at the station, but the crowd rushed not to the south, but to the commuter train. The potato beats the sea by a big margin.

I'm going by train number 30. The train is called "Tikhiy Don", branded. He was redirected to the disaster zone and equipped with what God sent. Not enough towels and coffee. “The reserved seat is half empty, and the compartment is half,” says the conductor. - Why do they go at all? .. Because the majority - on tours. Paid for sanatoriums. They hope that by the time they arrive, everything will be healed there.”

The station announces that all passengers of late trains are allowed free access to toilets and waiting rooms.

In Krasnodar we were late for an hour. There are no signs of distress or panic at the station. The station itself is clean and tidy. The weather is clear and hot. The waiting rooms are empty, two dozen people crowd at the scoreboard. Trains run, tickets are available. Availability of seats to Novorossiysk: on the train "Tambov - Novorossiysk" - 256 compartments, 228 reserved seats. "St. Petersburg - Anapa": 156 compartments, 104 reserved seats. "Kazan - Novorossiysk": 144 compartments, 242 reserved seats.

The radio insistently invites passengers to go to the toilet or sit in the waiting room for free. Service.

At the box office, a husband and wife with children buy tickets for the evening. The woman and children are settled separately, but in the same carriage, and the husband will have to go in the next one. They agree. They want to quickly leave the resort areas affected by the tornado. They say that a couple of days ago these cash desks were besieged by a crowd. It was even impossible to return the tickets - just not to get through. And now the cashier promised me one ticket to Moscow without any problems.

The deputy head of the Krasnodar railway station tells with horror how the public, frightened by bad weather, rushed to the trains: “The day before yesterday there were terribly people here. I couldn't get into my office for two and a half hours. For two days, I didn't sleep. And now the crisis is over. Are the trains late? Well, four hours is within the normal range. However, human problems remain. A woman came here yesterday. She and her children were camping. They were lucky to be alive. But the car, along with money and documents, was taken away. As is all camping. And now she needs to go to the Tver region. How can I help her? This should be dealt with by the administration of Novorossiysk. This is where the money is allocated. Well, I arranged for them to spend the night in the waiting room, bought pies with my own money. But I can't feed everyone! And if you have money and documents, then leaving is not a problem now. The problem is that not everyone has them.

From the Krasnodar railway station I was taken to Novorossiysk by a private driver. He promised to show and tell everything, as an eyewitness. About the tornado that came from the sea, he still speaks with horror: “A terrible thing, there was a column of water 200 meters wide and 3 km high. He collapsed in Shirokaya Beam and…”. He has no words.

The streets in many places are broken and washed out, there is a lot of equipment that removes garbage and in some places is already patching up roads.

The railway station of Novorossiysk makes a depressing impression. The old wretched building is designed for 200-300 people. And the day before yesterday there were up to three thousand. And there are still a lot of police at the station. There are military patrols. Of course, a nervous crowd can demolish anything. No worse than a tornado.

“It was more difficult to be on duty this time, of course,” a patrol policeman tells me. - Not like riots, but just a pity to look at the unfortunate. And there is nothing to help. We slept on the ground and on the floor… No, there was no crime at all.”

And then on the radio: “Citizens! In connection with the aggravation of the criminogenic situation ... ". In short, keep an eye on both your little things and ownerless bags.

Life at the station is worthy of a civil war. I did not find any hot food, at least elementary sausages. Kiosks correspond to the station. There is a help desk, where sometimes they hang out papers with delays and other information. There are quite a lot of people at the box office, but this is not a siege, but an ordinary Soviet queue. Nervous, of course. But the trains are running and the delays are decreasing. Delays are different: two hours, two and a half, 40 minutes.

In Krasnodar, I have never seen posters with ideological toasts. I didn't see it in Anapa afterwards. And at the wretched station of Novorossiysk - a huge "Glory to the Kuban!".

I did not wait for any minibus from the station. I went by trolleybus to the maritime station. I thought: I’ll swim by sea to Anapa, reconnoiter the situation and fly to Moscow by plane. You get the complete picture.

Surprisingly, there is no the cheapest transport, sea, in Novorossiysk! There are cargo ports. There is a sea station. Not like the railway. But this station, almost modern and pretty, is dead. Its vast halls are empty.

Not a cloud in the sky, hot. The sea in the port is not blue, but dark brown. Swimming is prohibited. Although it is unlikely that anyone will climb voluntarily into such water.

On both sides of the station are two ships - "Catherine II" and "Mikhail Kutuzov", both heavily beaten with rust. There are many tourists near the station. And for some reason everyone speaks German. They take pictures of cargo and military ships, laugh and willingly drink beer with barbecue in local cafes. German tourists are not afraid of tornadoes.

I am driving around the city - in the window there are continuous posters with a reminder that Novorossiysk is a hero city. And what glory to him! And around - a broken port, covered with garbage and rubbish caused by a storm, and scattered stacks of timber. The whole city seems to be licked by the dirty tongue of a tornado. They say that the Ministry of Emergency Situations promised to eliminate all the consequences by Monday. Oh, hardly! I'm ready to put my head on the rails - they won't have time.

Anapa is 30 km from Novorossiysk. By bus - 33 rubles, by minibus - 35, a private trader asked for 600, but immediately offered to take him for 200. I ended up taking another private trader for 80.

Sunday evening, August 11, in Anapa was the height of the holiday season. Despite the noticeable traces of the storm: the asphalt on many streets is washed out, there are pits, garbage traces of streams near the curbs. At the entrance to the central beach, the slabs have been turned out, and people are jumping on them, as if on a very rugged terrain.

The water in the sea is gray-yellow, but no one forbade swimming, and many square kilometers of small beaches are crowded with bathing people. I have not seen so many tourists for a long time. Never even seen it. Sea of ​​music. Laughter in the streets. All resort pleasures are in place and work tirelessly with tanned hands. It's strange, but you don't see a "room for rent" often. I tried to get a job for a day - and in two places where the room is still rented, I was refused. A day is not enough. Others will come and get comfort. In the second house they even told me after me: there are some vagabonds walking around here! And already in advance it was possible to guess that there are no problems with tickets from here. Well, it's raining, so what? Why voluntarily leave the cycle of resort pleasures? Nobody leaves.

The ticket office at the bus station does not work on Sundays, and out of grief I went to the railway station. Which, like Krasnodar, is also no match for Novorossiysk. Well maintained, modern. Despite the downpour and terrible rumors, there was no panic here at all, the station attendant said. This was later confirmed by a police officer. Tickets to Moscow, St. Petersburg - as many as you like! Coupe, reserved seat, luxury - what do you want?

And all the way to Rostov, I rode in an empty compartment of the half-empty 13th car.