Flood

Barsukovskaya was washed off the face of the earth in 20 minutes
The most disastrous situation has developed in the Kochubeevsky district of the Stavropol Territory. The Novokubansky farm, the village of Nadzornoye and the village of Barsukovskaya were in the flood zone, and 4 more were partially flooded.
“The badgers suffered the most.” “I talked about this, I talk about it and I will talk about it,” confirmed the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, in Stavropol.
The residents of this village sighed heavily once again, surrounding me on all sides.
“We benefit from knowing the minister,” they told me. - Houses, households, utensils - all this is a distant past. But the reality is that there is nowhere to live, nothing to eat. In essence we are homeless. It’s terrible how many of them there are now across the country...
I walk through the ruins. The impression is that the houses were simply wiped off the face of the earth. Just yesterday children were running here, residents were visiting each other, animals were grazing... Today it smells of death here. 24 drowned in Barsukovskaya alone.
“In fact, there are many more of them,” Svetlana Kurbatova sobs. “Here our EMS soldier, Gleb Korotygin, died. He saved people, but he himself sank into the water...
A woman stands in the place where her house used to be. And he’s not going to go anywhere, as if hoping that all this is just a nightmare and in the morning everything will return to normal.
“Only today they caught the Oka with four corpses!” - Svetlana cries. — And the figure of 91 people throughout the Southern District is simply nonsense. In our village, probably more died.
Barsukovskaya stretches over 6 kilometers in length; before the tragedy, 6,000 people lived here. Everything around resembles the front line of the front: fences have been knocked down, huts have collapsed like houses of cards. There is knee-deep mud all around, domestic animals are wandering somewhere in search of food - the grass is covered with silt. Overturned and crushed cars are encountered every now and then along the way. On the people’s faces smeared with silt there is only grief and despair.
“It hurts terribly,” pensioner Lyubov Kurilkina sobs loudly. - My whole body aches. I thought I would drown too, but God saved me. It just didn't make it any easier. There is not even anything to wear to keep warm. The good guys from the Ministry of Emergency Situations gave me a blouse...
According to Lyubov Georgievna, everything happened suddenly. On June 21 at 12 noon everything was still calm. She sat at home and watched terrible news on TV about the flood in North Ossetia. Not suspecting that she herself would have to endure a similar horror.
“It was about half past twelve,” she continues. “Suddenly I hear our men running down the street and shouting: “Save yourself! The water is coming!”
These were local police officers. A huge wave, about a meter high, rolled right behind them, washing away everything in its path. In panic, people ran out of their houses without having time to grab anything. In just twenty minutes the Badgers were wiped off the face of the earth. By 2 p.m. the water had calmed down, and a few of the surviving huts were flooded up to the very windows.
The flow was so strong that the water carried away multi-kilogram concrete blocks, heavy stones, and boards. The multi-ton Kirovets tractor was rushing along the canal at breakneck speed. There is no need to talk about simple “Zhiguli” and “Zaporozhets”. While people poured out their souls to me, the constant search for those who drowned in the surviving basements that remained underground continued...
“Shoigu says that the dead are to blame themselves - is he out of his mind?”
The huge inscription on the Circassian reservoir now sounds like a mockery: “The water of the Kuban River flows where the Bolsheviks command.”
“Over the past 5 years, either due to underfunding or for other reasons, 37 percent of water metering posts have been eliminated,” Sergei Shoigu told me later in Stavropol. “I wouldn’t like to blame anyone.” I think the main reason is the elements. Everything else is just a consequence.
Barsukovites are much more critical in their assessments. The simple option that nature is to blame for everything does not suit them.
“This is pure sloppiness and carelessness,” says collective farmer Mikhail Yuryev. “After all, the authorities knew that the dams in Karachay-Cherkessia would not hold up. But why didn’t they tell us about this?! Here we had a dry bypass canal nearby - we could slowly drain the water through it. No, we had to wait for the critical moment. They took it from the Karachay villages and dumped all the water on us. But they themselves are dry, they don’t care what happens to others. Yes, none of the officials in our country care about this. Shoigu said that many drowned because they did not want to leave their homes. I don’t know how the tongue turned...
Flood victims' nerves are on edge. Nobody believes in any help. Nobody thinks that they will be compensated for anything.
“They tell us to our faces that our relatives themselves are to blame for their deaths,” says Natalya Bezladnaya, without hiding her anger. - Are we fools?! Enemies to yourself?! I have two children - would I stay at home if I knew about the flood? Show me a mother who wouldn’t rush to save her children! And they talk about us like some kind of kamikaze.
Natalya was able to be saved by her brother: he jumped up to the house in his “four”, the children were literally thrown into the car - and they accelerated to full speed. Her sister-in-law Oksana was less fortunate: she and several other villagers had to sit on a willow tree all night.
“I’m simply amazed by the official reports: everyone was rescued, everything was done wonderfully, the rescuers only took the swearers from the roofs and trees last,” Oksana says indignantly. - Yes, no one bothered to come for us until 4 am.
According to Oksana, a helicopter flew up a couple of times and they had to literally cling to a tree with their teeth so as not to be blown away by the air flow from the blades. Apparently, the rescuers thought that those same lovers of obscenity were sitting there (note that she was there with the little girl next door) and they could wait. Until the morning.
“I don’t understand why all this lies had to be spread?” - says Oksana Bezladnaya. — Like, everything was sent on time, every effort was made. Where were the boats?
Other village residents also say that it would be better if helicopters didn’t fly at all.
“We had to climb onto the roof of the house,” recalls schoolgirl Natasha Startseva. — It’s terribly cold, it’s pouring, and I’m only wearing a T-shirt. On the roof of the house we found ourselves in a large company: me, a friend, her niece, my algebra teacher. At night a helicopter arrived: then they just started blowing us off the roof. The slate is wet, slippery, there is nothing to hold on to. The rescuers illuminated us with spotlights, looked and probably thought: to hell with you, there are too many people!
Around three in the morning, when the water receded a little, they made their way through the window into the house, where they stayed waist-deep in icy water until five in the morning. And later they got out of the flooded Badgers themselves - without help, which simply was not there.
“And today I was supposed to have my graduation,” Natasha adds bitterly. - But now that’s it - the dress has floated away... And we won’t get to the holidays for a very long time.
Now the Startsev family lives on the street next to a dilapidated house: they sleep in cars, cook on a gas stove next to the overturned Zhiguli car that a few days ago was the pride of the family. Those whose houses remained standing (and you can count them on one hand) have so far only managed to shovel the mud out of the huts.
“We had it ankle-deep in our house,” says Lyubov Kurilkina. “They raked it out with joint efforts—I’m old, I can’t handle a shovel.” All the furniture was thrown out, as were clothes and linen. Everything is worthless. I have several families living in my house now, I think we can get out together.
I ask why you don’t move to a tent camp, because it’s more comfortable there.
“We already have nothing left.” If you leave, the survivors will disappear.
“Expecting help from the police in the fight against looters is naive and stupid”
Looting is a rather painful topic, however, according to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, everything is calm.
“Only one case was recorded,” believes Valery Skiba, deputy head of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Stavropol Territory. “The criminal, when he realized that he had been noticed, abandoned the stolen goods and disappeared. A criminal case has been initiated in this case. We are making every effort to prevent such incidents: patrolling is carried out around the clock, with enhanced patrolling at night.
Barsukovites think differently.
“Everyone is dragging away - both the gypsies and the cops themselves,” says Yuryev. — My neighbor’s tape recorder disappeared after a visit from law enforcement officers. It was the only household appliance that remained undamaged as it stood on the cabinet. Therefore, expecting help from law enforcement officers is naive and stupid.
Someone else's grief is always a haven for scammers. In addition to the looters, merchants also tried to make money from the village residents. The day after the tragedy, they raised prices: a bottle of water - 80 rubles, a pack of Java - 25 rubles. etc. The distraught villagers tried to catch the vile entrepreneurs and impale them.
“At the headquarters they are now filling out forms about the victims,” says Nikolai Postykin. - I saw how they do it. The young lady receives the gypsies and writes down their records: there were 150 chickens, 20 cows, 150 nutria... This is a whole farm, and she records everything. One nutria costs 500 rubles! It’s clear that she’s too lazy to go to Badgers, knead the dirt, and see everything herself. And then, without checking, they count everything, give the money to whoever, and the rest goes into their own pockets. This is all one big scam.
Another reason why the Barsukovites do not want to leave their homes is that the tent camp was occupied by gypsies. “They came running like crows to carrion,” say the villagers. Relations with nomadic neighbors are, to put it mildly, hostile. They are accused of everything: stealing humanitarian aid and looting.
As usual, the official version looks different: there is decent accommodation in the camp. There are tents, toilets and two summer showers, there are field kitchens, you can call your relatives. In addition to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, police officers, firefighters, doctors, soldiers work there, and they even brought in a riot police armored personnel carrier.
“Now there are 3,600 people left in Barsuki,” Colonel Vladimir Godunov, commandant of the temporary resettlement area, told me. — We took 2,000 people to Stavropol—old people and children. We settle them in camps, boarding houses, and hotels. We feed him three times a day, a soldier's ration: porridge, pasta, canned food, bread, tea, water.
Only people don’t want to live in a tent camp. They still mourn their ruins.
“I don’t know what to do now,” Lyubov Nevrova cries. - My son will return from the army soon - where to live? I have nothing left - the house is completely destroyed. Now the guy is serving his homeland, but will she be able to repay the same? Will they provide new housing? I'd rather drown...
“Everything is rotten. Now the Ministry of Emergency Situations is providing food, but what will happen next?”
Just a couple of kilometers from Barsukovskaya is the village of Nadzornoye. It was also flooded, but, unlike the village residents, they knew about the impending danger.
“We were warned,” says Vladimir Shokhin. “I’m from Nadzorny myself, and I came to Barsukovskaya to look after my mother’s house. After these events, she was hospitalized with a heart attack: she could not withstand this ordeal.
In Nadzorny, residents were notified of the impending flood at 8 am. The villagers, having collected their belongings and livestock, moved up the mountain. They stayed there until the next day.
“It feels like they simply forgot about us,” continues Shokhin. “We sat in the forest and didn’t know what happened to our housing. The men couldn’t stand it and went on reconnaissance... I just can’t understand: why didn’t the rescuers react when they arrived in a completely empty village? No one even rushed to look for us. Thank God they survived. Our chairman is great, it’s even scary to think what could have happened if he hadn’t warned.
But now the residents of both villages are faced with another problem: how to restore their economy? After all, there was practically nothing left - no livestock, no yard. Everything in the garden has rotted, all food supplies have been destroyed.
- Would you like to take a look? - Shokhin asks and goes to the garden. He digs up one potato, which at first glance seems quite normal. She squeezes it slightly in her hands - it bursts, like a balloon filled with water.
- Do you see? Everything is rotten. Now the EMCHEs are giving food. What will happen next? Almost all the cattle died. And the poor nutria were in metal cages...
Village residents look to the future with fear. Governor of the Stavropol Territory Alexander Chernogorov promised to allocate 1000 rubles to all victims, but what can be done with it? And when will they be given?
“We’ll have to go somewhere to earn money,” says Evgeniy Shchikin with a sad smile. — Maybe I’ll have to go to Belarus.
None of the villagers hope for help.
“This morning the cops drove by in a car, announcing: “Be prepared to take measures for self-preservation,” says Nikolai Postykin. - Here's how - “self-preserve.” We'll save, don't worry. We Kuban people are a seasoned people.
The mood in the refugee camp is panicky: people are afraid of a repeat of the nightmare. They say they won't be able to stand it a second time. A man runs up to the emergency response headquarters shouting:
“They said on the radio that we would be flooded again!”
- Who told you this? “We have everything under control,” the EMSC member unsuccessfully tries to reassure him.
- That's what they said!
The faces of the villagers are contorted with horror. They are afraid that if a flood happens, they will be “dumped” again. As it turned out, the man had every reason to panic. In the evening, headquarters received a signal that the flood could begin any minute. Seven buses were urgently sent from Stavropol to pick up the victims. But it worked out. At 5 am they were returned back.
Now the Stavropol region is in a state of siege. Before I left, an alarm signal was received again: one of the five dams in the Piedgorny region was threatening to collapse. When I was leaving, the entire Stavropol police were crowded at the airport waiting for Vladimir Putin. They hoped that the president would be able to solve all the problems. I looked at all this madness and thought: it would be better for the police to take on board the experience of Stavropol students and go help people. More and more benefits.
Mikhail Yakovlev. Stavropol - Barsukovskaya village - Moscow.