Kommersant – online edition
4 August, 2008
By Bogdan-Skavron, Ivano-Frankovsk Region; Veronika Savchenko, Lvov Region
http://www.kommersant.ua/doc.html?DocID=1007857&IssueId=46980

The President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko called state of environmental emergency in several flooded areas in western regions of Ukraine in his resolution No. 682 dated 28 July. The document provides for elimination of the disaster fallout within tight deadlines. However, reporters of Kommersant Bogdan-Skavron and Veronika Savchenko found out that cut-off villagers from Ivano-Frankovsk and Lvov Regions haven’t seen any action following the presidential decree.

Cut off from the world
Air communications remain even today, a week after the flood, the only possible way to reach the most settlements in Verkhovina area (Ivano-Frankovsk region). No chance to take the road connecting the regional center Verkhovina settlement with villages Bystrets, Topilche, Zelyonoye, Yavirnyk, Shibene, Burkut running 30 km along the valley of Cherniy Cheremosh River. The road was washed away in some places. Loose silt piles on the spare road parts untouched by mudflows became a heavy obstacle even for pedestrians. Huge land slides are on the way. Somewhere, 80-years old firs fell down.

“Some people accuse forest guards that too few trees remained on mountain slopes to hold the water after they had been chopped down. In fact, there are enough trees. It’s just there’s too much water. A hectare of land slid with a century-old forest on my site near Shibene village!”, shared his feelings the guard of Krasnytsk forestry Mikhail Shatruk. The landslide is still dangerous. It keeps creeping and threatens to shut off Cherniy Cheremosh. If it happens, the river will overflow again and trigger another flood in the nearby villages. Many of such slides “live in the mountains. One of them took down a cookhouse and a cattle-shed owned by inhabitant of Zelyonoye Village Ivan Maksymyuk and now is creeping onto his house. “It’s just moving to the house. Evenings are scary with no electricity and darkness in the yard. I don’t see where to run if trouble happens”, complained his wife.

Light can be seen only in several manors of Zelyonoye at night. Most of 700 houses get absorbed by darkness. Electricity is for those, which bought in advance “drivers” as they call them here – petrol-driven power generators. Others live by candlelight. “Drivers” are apparently going to die too. The village is running out of long stored petrol supplies and the nearest filling station is 30km away to be covered on foot along mud-locked roads.

Shibene Village is located at Cherniy Cheremosh. The biggest loss here is a two-storey former canteen of a woodworking plant. Windows, doors, remnants of walls still can be seen among logs in the river. Just before the flood the canteen had been completely renovated to host tourists. It waited for guests but would never see any. The construction was washed away when the dam at nearby water storage burst. There is no more water storage either where locals hoped to breed trout.

Zelyonoye citizens are completely isolated but comfort themselves saying that ancestors “lived in similar conditions and survived”. People lack powers and resources to reconstruct pedestrian bridges over the river separating right-bank inhabitants from the central village on the left bank with administrative buildings, medical units, and shops. In fairness, there’s nothing to buy in the local stores, just tinned goby, stale biscuits, packed juices, and vinegar. At the same time profiteers are trading readily in Zelyonoye and other settlements. They sell a beer bottle at UAH 4.50 (normally 2) and a Winston pack at UAH 10 (normally 3). “If you ask, why it is so expensive, they say “If you don’t want, don’t buy”. But you want to smoke. We have gone through so much that your nerves just can’t endure”, complains local citizen Ivan Zelenchuk.

What is the help target here – people or area?
The government is trying to provide first aid staff with military helicopters. A squadron was mobilized with disposition in Ivano-Frankovsk to deliver food and evacuate people in need for emergency help. Yet locals don’t know when the craft will arrive. They are guided by the sound heard from the distance to help unload sacks with flour, sugar, cereals, and yeast. It takes no more than 15 minutes. The pilots hurry up and sometimes don’t turn off engines.

“I don’t understand who is being helped here – people or area? Helicopter guys don’t pay attention to people at all”, complains Odessa-citizen Andrey to Kommersant. He went on vocation to the Carpathians with his wife and two twin 1-year-old daughters short before the flood. He didn’t know whom to go for help for a week. At last the helicopter arrived and he tried to arrange evacuation of his family with pilots. But they didn’t even listen to him. Andrey still managed to take his family away on 2 August by a suddenly arrived helicopter of Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation for Development of Ukraine.

Foundation’s employee Svetlana Panushkina in charge for coordination of help to victims in Verkhovina told Kommersant about details of evacuation from flood-struck areas “There is actual panic among some people. Locals sometimes slam on board demanding to be taken away. One of them punched me on face and broke my lip. But we have a strict instruction to evacuate only women with children, sick, and pregnant women. The authorities provided security for us – a special forces soldier. It’s easier with him”.

We are in trouble! God save us, don't punish!
Unlike villages in Verkhovina area of Ivano-Frankovsk Region, 116 houses and 1,500 hectares of arable land in Girskye Village of Lvov Region still remain flooded. Old-timers say they saw the last flood in this area in 1998 but its effect can’t be compared with today’s. The bridge dividing Girskye saved many lives. People moved to fellow villagers living on the right flood-free side. Here, it looks as if no disaster has hit the place – houses are clean and bright, vegetable gardens are well in order, chickens, geese, and ducks are running about in yards. The emergency ministry HQ is in the middle of the village, right at the bridge. Almost all villagers came to the bridge to watch rescuers pumping water out. Every day people watch the water drop. Old women cross themselves and whisper “We are in trouble! God save us, don't punish”.

Rescuers keep working and take dead foxes, moles, and rats out of water. “There are fewer of
these drowned here, but still you can find some”, they say. Locals ask emergency guys to take boats and go home to check what remained. “Put me down, my name. All my property was destroyed”, says the dweller Ekaterina Bystrova and several dozens with the same requests join her in a second. “The God sent the flood to punish people for debauchery. We must be patient”, cries 70-year-old Anna Maksymiv.

“They are pumping water out day and night. Water level has sunk 1-3cm in some houses. Head of village council Vladimir Dudich is working like a slave. Emergency workers live in this house and get their meals. What a person the God gave us!”, exclaims with joy 70-year-old villager Maria Hryntsiv. She told us about her intention to ask premier Yulia Timoshenko for a boat and fisherman boots.

Robinsons from Girskoye
Anastasiya Roy, 71, living in Maliye Lipitsy village located near Girskoye, hasn’t left her house. Her daughter came in a boat to assist her with housekeeping. Deputy chief of the ministry of emergencies in Lvov Region Valentin Dorofeyev informed Kommersant that they keep in touch with women: “We call them, bring water and food. Anastasiya Roy lived on the attic during the first flood days. Her daughter came later and they live there”.
The house of Ms Roy was surrounded with water. The hostess stays in the yard waist-deep in water but welcomes guests heartily. “Oh, my dear. Come in, let’s have some tea”, she invites. “Well, there’s nowhere for me to go”, she explains the reasons for staying. “I’ve got ducks, geese. Someone must take care of them. If they gave me housing in another part of the village - a small house, a land lot, I would move. Otherwise, what else is there to do? If you are fated to die for sins, may it be”, she says.

Locals believe that water will sink as soon as in a month. Valentin Dorofeyev is more optimistic. “We need 10-14 days”, he says. It is good that in 1992 a peat dam was built. It held water head. But the lock burst, it turned out that a local dweller had stolen the valve. It was long ago but only after water flooded houses did they remember. A perfect reflection of the human factor.