| There is an influx of black patients in Rostov-on-Don hospitals Prolonged frosts in the Rostov region have practically paralyzed both large and small businesses in the region. The Don and the Sea of Azov froze so much that even icebreakers were trapped in ice. In some places, ice has frozen the Sea of Azov to the bottom, and it can be stated that Russian agricultural exports have stopped, since it is through the Don ports that about 60% of domestic grain, sunflowers, and vegetable oils are exported abroad.
Due to weather conditions, construction was suspended, authorities asked large enterprises to reduce gas consumption and switch to reserve fuels, and street trading almost disappeared. Potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, that is, everything that spoils from frost, have disappeared from the shelves of the Central Market of Rostov-on-Don. According to the director of one of the city markets, Yuri Mukovoz, street trading is suffering unprecedented losses. Sales in supermarkets have also fallen, but only hats, gloves, felt boots, high fur boots and heaters are being actively sold out. In the O'Key shopping center, for example, they say that the sale of household heaters has increased more than 20 times. The income of taxi drivers has also increased sharply.
Residents of the southern region, unaccustomed to such cold weather, try not to go outside unless absolutely necessary, but the worst situation is for Africans who, by the will of fate, find themselves in Rostov. A dramatic incident occurred with a 40-year-old graduate student of the Rostov Technical University from Burundi, Isidore Nizhembere. Izidor has been living in Rostov for nine years and believes that he has adapted to the local weather, although in his homeland the temperature never drops below plus 18 degrees. Moreover, in the midst of severe cold weather, Izidor, together with several other enthusiasts from the local Optimist club, took part in the 15-kilometer track and field race “Winter Lace 2006”. Izidor won in his age category, but a few days later he felt pain in his hands. As it turned out, even gloves could not save the African from the Don frosts. Due to the dark color of his skin, doctors did not immediately determine the severity of the graduate student’s frostbite and hospitalized him with some delay. The fate of Isidore Nizhembere was shared by several other black students who ended up in medical institutions with frostbite.
So far, the record cold on the Don has managed without major accidents or incidents. Except that in the Krasnosulinsky district, three kilometers of the above-ground part of the water pipeline froze, and several tens of thousands of residents were left without water. The prosecutor's office, as usual, opened a criminal case, although it is simply unrealistic to save such communications from thirty-degree frost - they simply had to be laid underground in Soviet times. Construction forces from the entire region were urgently brought to the scene to urgently lay a new water pipeline, but in the Rostov region there were not enough pipes of the required diameter, and they could only be found in Moscow.
Meanwhile, rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations are preparing for a new misfortune - snowfall. Local officials are especially worried about the Don section of the M-4 federal highway. Last year it got so bad that traffic was paralyzed for a couple of days, and President Putin personally drew attention to the problem. Perhaps that is why the Ministry of Emergency Situations is now reserving an unprecedented amount of equipment to combat drifts and frosts on the federal highway. More than five hundred units of equipment have been reserved for clearing the Don section of M-4, but to be on the safe side, rescuers are keeping seven more field kitchens and special vehicles with “potbelly stoves” at the ready to warm up drivers. Larisa NIKITINA, Rostov-on-Don |
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