On Wednesday, the emergency was introduced officially in the Olympic city of Sochi flooded by heavy rain, the Novye Izvestia daily reported. A section of the Dzhugba-Sochi highway that was opened for traffic just a week ago happened to be in the flood area.
The sirens are howling in the city of Sochi, people are asked not to go out in the streets, the classes in the schools and kindergartens are cancelled. The water level in Sochi River has already reached the critical level and the water keeps flowing with a speed of 6,000 cubic meters per hour, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. Several roads leading to Olympic sites are flooded. People moving in the water up to waist and the city stranded in many kilometers of traffic jams are seen on the photos, which local bloggers are posting in the Internet.
The Sochi infrastructure turned out to be unprepared for the natural disaster, coordinator of the ecological mission in the North Caucasus Yevgeny Vitishko told the daily. In his words, the river banks were not reinforced according to the plan in many districts, the drainage system was not created on the recently built roads, though it should have been done according to the documents.
Volunteer of the ecological mission in the North Caucasus Olga Noskovets claims that the construction in Sochi is being made with blatant violations, “The designers do not take into account natural features of the region, where flood and whirlwinds occur quite often.”
The Olympic capital turned in Venice due to the heavy rain, which hit the Black Sea coast on September 23-24, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. A railway station not commissioned in the Black Sea resort town of Adler is flooded. The stadiums, where competitions will be held, were not affected in the flood. But the roads leading to the Olympic park turned in rivers. The flood situation is complicated by the fact that an investment forum is to open in the city on Thursday, but many Olympic sites are full of dirt and puddles.
Local residents are convinced that the rain traditional for this season became so heavy, because the roads were not provided with the drainage system. “There are no drains both on old and recently built roads,” the city authorities said.
Local Internet forums are cramped with the photos of flooded cars. The bloggers are convinced that the city was flooded, just because the roads are not provided with drains. The emergency service said that the situation is not critical, as the public transport is running and the water is being pumped out.