Citizens embark on chaotic scramble to escape floodwaters after Ukraine dam breach
Dozens of evacuees on an island in the Dnieper River scurried onto the tops of military trucks to flee rising floodwaters caused by the breach of a dam upstream, as shelling in a war zone separating Ukrainian and Russian forces echoed overhead
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — As shelling from Russia’s war on Ukraine echoed overhead, dozens of evacuees on an island in the Dnieper River scurried onto the tops of military trucks or into rafts to flee rising floodwaters caused by the breach of a dam upstream.
The unnerving bark of dogs left behind further soured the mood of those ferried to safety. A woman in one raft clutched the head of her despondent daughter. A stalled military truck stuck in swelling waters raised the panic level as Red Cross teams tried to manage an orderly evacuation.
Nobody knew just how high the waters rushing through a gaping hole in the Kakhovka dam would rise, or whether people or pets would escape alive.
The scrambled evacuation by boat and military truck from an island neighborhood off the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson downstream on Tuesday testified to the latest human chaos caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
