CHELYABINSK, Russia — A small army of workers set to work Saturday to replace the estimated 200,000 square meters (50 acres) of windows shattered by the shock wave from a meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region.
The
astonishing Friday morning event blew out windows in more than 4,000
buildings in the region, mostly in the capital city of the same name and
injured some 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying glass.
Fifteen
of the injured remained hospitalized on Saturday, one of them in a
coma, the regional health ministry said, according to the Interfax news
agency.
Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich on Saturday said damage
from the high-altitude explosion — estimated to have the force of 20
atomic bombs — is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He
promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week.
But
that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in
Chelyabinsk was minus-12 C (10 F), and for many the immediate task was
to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows.
More
than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region
to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief
efforts, the regional governor’s office said. Crews from glass companies
in adjacent regions were being flown in.
In the town of
Chebarkul, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Chelyabinsk city, divers
explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments
believed to have fallen there, leaving a six-meter-wide (20-foot-wide)
hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news
agencies the search hadn’t found anything.
Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers.
Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they’d lived through.
Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the meteor streaked across the sky shortly after sunrise.
“I
glanced up and saw a glowing dot in the west. And it got bigger and
bigger, like a soccer ball, until it became blindingly white and I
turned away,” he said.
In a local church, clergyman Sexton Sergei sought to derive a larger lesson.
“Perhaps
God was giving a kind of sign, so that people don’t simply think about
their own trifles on earth, but rather look to the heavens once in a
while.”
