Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered investigators to find out if enough was done to prevent 144 people being killed in floods in southern Russia after flying to the region to deal with the first big disaster of his new presidency.
Putin, who was criticised for his slow reaction to disasters earlier in his career, also ordered money to be put aside late on Saturday for building new homes for victims of the worst flooding in decades in Krasnodar, a relatively rich area with thriving agriculture and tourism industries.
An Interior Ministry crisis centre said 144 people had been killed in the flooding after two months’ average rainfall fell in a few hours on Friday night. Most of the dead were drowned, many of them elderly people caught unawares as they slept.
Police said survivors climbed into trees and onto roofs to stay above the waters, which flooded entire ground floors of some buildings and created driving torrents in some streets.
The Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, the main outlet for wheat from the world’s second largest exporter and a key loading port for crude oil from the world’s largest producer, could resume loadings on Sunday, port sources said.
But the consequences of the flash flood could be more lasting for Putin, although he moved swiftly on Saturday to show he was on top of the rescue effort.
Putin and the regional governor surveyed the flood zone from a helicopter and bumped over a country road in a minibus with the head of the Krymsk district, discussing the disaster response in the town worst hit by the flooding.
“I have asked the leadership of the (federal) Investigative Committee to come down. The Investigative Committeewill check the actions of all the authorities – how the notice was given, how it could have been given, how it should have been given and who acted how,” Putin was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency late on Saturday at a meeting in Krymsk.
“I ask you to cooperate,” Putin added.
PUTIN’S IMAGE
It was the first major disaster in Russia since he returned to the Kremlin for a third term as president after a four-year interlude as prime minister.
The former KGB spy, now 59, has struggled increasingly to project his customary image of mastery since the outbreak of protests against his rule last December.
In his 12 years in power, both as president and prime minister, Russia has been plagued by natural and man-made disasters that have laid bare a longstanding shortfall in investment and management for Russia‘s transport and infrastructure.
These include deadly forest fires in 2010 and the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000 which killed 118 sailors and officers. Putin was accused of responding slowly to the Kursk disaster because attempts by foreign rescue teams to save the sailors were initially not allowed.
Putin on Saturday ordered the Emergencies Ministry to check a reservoir near Krymsk. The state water resource agency has rejected suggestions by residents that a release of water from a nearby reservoir was responsible for the severe flooding in Krymsk.
The flooding followed a month of rain which worsened on Friday night but was expected to stop on Monday. It damaged thousands of homes, forcing survivors to take shelter in tent camps set up outside Krymsk by emergency services teams.
Interfax news agency reported the road from Novorossiisk to the popular nearby Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik was being cleared but transport, including rail traffic, had largely collapsed in the region.
Two people were detained in the Krymsk area for looting, it said.
