Kuban River Bursts Its Banks, Threatening To Flood Temryuk City

About 3,000 residents of the city of Temryuk and its suburbs (Krasnodar Territory, south of European Russia, eastern coast of the Black Sea) have been moved Wednesday night because the Kuban River burst out its banks. The water level in the river reached 250 centimetres, a 60-centimetre increase on the critical point. Moreover, owing to the high level of water, several dozen private houses in a number of the territory's coastal regions have sunk and their inhabitants evacuated to safer places. The press service of the North Caucasian regional department of the Russian Federal Frontier Service reported Thursday that the command staff of the territorial frontier department Krasnodar and civil defence and emergency situations department of the Krasnodar Territory organised mobile anti-flood groups. By Wednesday night, water threatened to submerge a motorway leading to the place of stationing of the Temryuk marine division of frontier patrol boats. Possible evacuation of property of both the division and one of the outposts of the border commandant's office in the village of Timashevskaya is not ruled out, either. As many as 305 individuals and 71 units of machinery, including Mi-8 helicopter, have been involved in the anti-flood operations. Fluctuations of the water level in rivers of the Krasnodar Territory have been observed since December 19. This was caused by a heavy snowfall and a sharp temperature overfall. The rise of temperature caused melting of snow, while the recent cold spell led to a freezing-over in the Kuban mouth, which hampers water flow.