MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Water in a number of districts of Kherson may surge as high as one meter if the floodgates of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station are broken, Acting Governor of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo said during a Soloviev Live TV broadcast on Wednesday.
"If the lock chambers are broken, the water will mainly go through the dikes, then perhaps after a certain estimated time it will reach Kherson, on both the right and left banks," he said, "Wherever serious flooding is possible, the water will rise by one meter, according to calculations. We really should help people to leave the region faster. <...> Kherson is located on the high coast, and only in some areas, our islands, in the neighborhood of Korabel, of course, the water could rise above the foundation level, and, accordingly, there will be a threat to the stability of these houses."
Saldo noted that the left bank, on which most of Kherson is located, is subject to non-critical flooding. "We have now increased the discharge of water into the canals <...> where the water goes, so that less of it is released through the dikes," he added, commenting on the measures being taken to avoid serious consequences.
Earlier, the acting governor of the Kherson Region announced that civilians in the right-bank part of the region would be evacuated to the left bank of the Dnieper River because of the threat of flooding that could occur if the Ukrainian servicemen hit the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant. He also noted that Ukraine was "accumulating huge forces on the Nikolayev and Krivoy Rog fronts". According to Saldo, the decision to relocate residents was taken also due to "the creation of large-scale defensive fortifications so that any attack can be repelled."