Back

Catastrophic Flood in Transcarpathia, March 2001

Escape with truck

last reports as of May 22nd, 2001

last reports as of May 5th, 2001

Last reports as of April 30th, 2001

last reports as of March 28th, 2001

last reports as of March 8th, 2001

  • Letter from Sándor Molnár (Social and missionary work/Evangelical Reformed Church of Western Ukraine)
  • videotext: 11,000 people evacuated, 4 dead
  • eyewitness account by telephone from Ibolya Molnár
    • at least 180 houses destroyed in village of Feketeardó
    • Ukrainian government officially appeals for help from USA, Canada and European Union
    • borders currently impassable because of flooding are still closed
  • • According to initial, as yet unconfirmed, reports by the Ukrainian government, the allocation of state assistance and financial support to flood victims to cover the removal of current flood damage and the repair and rebuilding of destroyed houses, as was done during the 1998 flood, will probably be very meager or even impossible.

Latest Reports (as of March 7th 2001)

A House in the flood at Vari
The region of Transcarpathia in southwestern Ukraine is getting no rest. After the damaging "flood of the century" in November 1998--at that time 120 towns were flooded--the most severely hit being Vári, a village of 3.600, where over 300 houses were destroyed, leaving 2,000 people homeless--and following the seepage of water contaminated with heavy metal residue from northern Romanian mines into the upper Theiss basin in Ukraine in spring of last year, the region is once again affected by a terrible catastrophe.

Having filled up from heavy rainfall and the resulting rapid and abundant melting of snow in the Carpathians, the Theiss River and its tributaries overflowed their banks. Whereas on last Saturday (March 3rd, 2001) the Theiss measured a depth of 34 centimeters at the Vylok border crossing, it rose in 48 hours to a depth of over 7 meters. It continues to rise.

Escape in boats

The dams raised since the last flood in 1998 are breached in several places. The situation is more catastrophic than in 1998. At the moment 192 towns with about 8000 buildings are under water. More than 7000 people have been evacuated so far, some of whom were saved by Hungarian helicopters.

The first fatalities are being mourned.

An eyewitness reports via telephone from the village of Feketeardó: "The water is 1.5 meters deep--twice as deep as the flood of 1998. Looking out the window I see people on rooftops and buildings collapsing."

Many victims had just finished painstakingly rebuilding their homes after the last flood with credits from the Ukrainian government, with no real chance of repaying. In this region, which is among Europe's poorest, 90% of the people are unemployed. Buildings made of sod blocks are conducive to collapsing under the weight of massive water. In addition to residences, innumerable stalls and sheds are damaged. A large number of cattle and supplies of potatoes and grain have been destroyed.

A man standing in front of his house
Information is somewhat difficult to obtain, since our volunteers and those responsible at the site are almost constantly working to fight the flooding.

Donations to support flood victims in Transcarpathia may be sent to our account:

Transcarpathia Benefit Society Inc.
Account no: 381 20 10 908
Rounting code: 870 580 00 Sparkasse Vogtland
Key word: Hochwasser
Back