New satellite images released by Planet Labs late on Wednesday offer some of the clearest glimpses yet of the scale of flooding in cities and villages downstream from the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, which was destroyed on Tuesday.
While thousands in affected areas have been evacuated, the total number of people brought to safety remains a fraction of the roughly 41,000 on both sides of the Dnipro River who Ukrainian officials have estimated were at risk from the flooding.
Kherson
Floodwaters inundated low-lying neighborhoods of Kherson, the Ukrainian-held regional capital about 40 miles downstream from the dam. Waters rose about 10 feet above normal in parts of the city, reaching the rooftops of houses.
Many areas on higher ground were untouched by the floodwaters, while rescuers in boats pulled stranded residents from their roofs or upper floors in neighborhoods near the river’s banks.
Oleshky
Residents of the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, pleaded for help in chat groups and searched for missing loved ones. The exiled Ukrainian mayor of the city said the town was about 85 percent flooded.
On the Telegram messaging app, a Russian official described Oleshky as the “most difficult situation” and said it was “practically completely flooded.”
Korsunka, a Russian-controlled town around five miles downstream of the dam, is one of several inundated villages on the east bank. A reporter on Russia’s state-controlled Channel 1 rowed a boat through the streets of Korsunka and said that rescues were now possible only by water.
