There is serious flooding in Crimea. Bridge structures collapsed in Simferopol

In Crimea, they are eliminating the consequences of a cyclone that has been raging on the Black Sea coast for several days. The disaster hit Simferopol and the foothills, where, as a result of heavy rainfall, the rivers overflowed their banks.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, eight settlements were affected, including the Crimean capital and Alushta. More than 80 houses were flooded, 128 people were evacuated, including 49 children. Until the water recedes, people will live with relatives and friends.

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Water is being released from the overflowing Simferopol reservoir. Flows washed away part of the structures of the bridge over the Salgir River on one of the central streets of the city, causing part of the roadway to collapse. There were no injuries, the road was blocked.

“To avoid a critical situation with traffic jams in the city, we need to start restoration work today,” the head of Crimea Sergei Aksenov said in his Telegram channel. “Now we need to find an engineering solution as quickly as possible; we need to start the survey immediately, without waiting for the water to subside. The restoration work will be carried out by the VAD company.

This is a system contractor, I am sure that it will cope with the assigned tasks. The maximum period is until the end of July. The necessary funding for repair work will be provided.”

The bridge underwent a major overhaul in 2019, and after the emergency, the quality of the work performed is highly questionable. Moreover, the same contractor was repairing another bridge on Gagarin Street near the railway station, and traffic on it is more intense. However, ex-Minister of Transport Anatoly Tsurkin believes that the contractor has nothing to do with it - the bridge is standing, the approaches to it have collapsed.

“I would like to draw attention to the fact that it was not the bridge itself, which was successfully repaired in 2019-2020, that collapsed, but the approach (junction),” Tsurkin wrote in his Telegram channel. – Therefore, a reasonable question arises here: who formed the terms of reference, and what was planned in it? Have the approaches to the bridge been repaired (as far as I can see, they have not)? Only after this can a decision be made about someone’s guilt.”

Tsurkin emphasizes that there is no comprehensive approach to the repair and construction of facilities in Crimea. This also became the reason for the flooding of houses in the Dobrovskaya Valley - plots for individual housing were issued here without a comprehensive plan for the development of the territory, and, often, by decision of the authorities, squatters were formalized. As a result, houses are located in the red zones where streams flow from the mountains, and the water chooses village streets to flow down.

The current situation is recognized as a natural emergency of an intermunicipal nature at the regional level.

Now the Belogorsky district is actively flooding. It was decided to evacuate children from the Belogorsk boarding school - 72 children and 13 accompanying persons. A vigil has been organized at the dam of the Simferopol reservoir to promptly respond to the situation. Water is being discharged in significant volumes, but the inflows continue to flow. Rainfall is forecast to begin to subside in the afternoon.