Evacuation of residents announced in Tyrnyauz due to mudflow

A powerful mudflow is descending in Tyrnyauz, the authorities have announced the evacuation of residents of a number of houses. Some of the city's microdistricts were left without water.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, the mudflow damaged the supports of the bridge on the federal highway that leads to the Elbrus resort, traffic on the highway is closed. A state of emergency has been declared in the Elbrus district. Some residents of Tyrnyauz were evacuated, several dozen people were in a temporary accommodation point on July 22 and 23. About 700 subscribers in one of the microdistricts of Tyrnyauz remain without water and gas. More than 40 tourists were evacuated from the territory of the Elbrus Park and left in an accommodation point in Tyrnyauz. Due to a new gas pipeline accident, residents of the Gerkhozhan microdistrict are left without gas.

After the rain, a mudflow is descending in Tyrnyauz, car traffic in the Gerkhozhan area has been stopped, the Elbrus district administration reported today, calling on city residents to "stay at home".

The city administration advised residents of the Upper and Lower Gerkhozhan, Aul and third kilometer microdistricts to prepare water supplies.

As a result of the mudflow, "water pipes to the Lower and Upper Gerkhozhan microdistricts of Tyrnyauz were damaged," the Kabardino-Balkaria prosecutor's office reported.

At 18:33 Moscow time, the district authorities announced the evacuation of residents of Molodezhny Lane, houses 1-4, and houses next to the administration along Elbrussky Avenue, houses 36-40, asking city residents "leave your homes immediately."

The mudflow is also descending along the street where the city administration is located, the Telegram channel "ChP Nalchik" reported, publishing a video from the scene.

Recall that in 2018, geophysicists warned the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria about the need for urgent repairs to the mudflow channel in Tyrnyauz and the organization of a system to alert people to the threat of mudflows. "The potential for mudflows in the Gerkhozhan-Su River basin is enormous, and there is no expectation of a decrease in mudflow activity in the future," said Mikhail Dokukin, Acting Head of the Environmental Research Department at the High-Mountain Geophysical Institute.

In June 2021, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that a round-the-clock post had been set up on the Gerkhozhan-Su River to monitor possible mudflows. Specialists from the High-Mountain Geophysical Institute conducted a survey of the Buzulgan landslide in August-September 2020. During the two weeks that the survey lasted, the landslide moved down by 20 meters, and its lower boundary was two kilometers from Tyrnyauz. "In order to avoid catastrophic consequences from mudflows with a possible increased volume of removal in the future, it is necessary to clear the mudflow channel from deposits of previous mudflows and reconstruct it," the institute said at the time.

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