The day the waters rose in Sulomai

n Children play amongst the mud and devastation left behind by the flooding

SULOMAI, Krasnoyarsk Region — June is usually a happy month for the people of Sulomai – the long winter has given way to spring and the villagers are beginning to enjoy the warm but brief summer months. But on June 1 last year, nature played a cruel trick, leaving many villagers homeless and bewildered.

At first, when the water of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River began rising as the ice thawed, people thought it was “just another flood”, according to the town’s mayor, Tamara Kryukova. Mild flooding is not uncommon during spring in Sulomai.

“Because they thought it was going to be like the floods in the past, people put their possessions on their roofs for safety,” explains Mrs Kryukova. “But the water kept rising. Then we saw the ice floes, so we moved our possessions even higher up, but most of them were lost or broken during the flood. People got very frightened…and had to flee to safety. There was no value in saving possessions.”

Valerei Mekheev, a missionary with the Siberian Christian Mission of Mercy (SCMM), described the scene he witnessed on June 1:

“The water came up 26 metres [85 feet] above normal in some places. The ice floes looked like multi-storey buildings, and houses were broken up into little pieces of wood. All the houses along the river were destroyed and 30 families are now homeless.”

Temporary shelters

Within the space of two hours, 50 buildings were destroyed, including the library, the local administration building and a school – a significant loss for a small settlement of only 179 people. Temporary shelters and tents were erected for the homeless families, but these would be inadequate during the bitterly cold Siberian winter, when the temperature drops to about minus 60 degrees Celsius.

Responding to an appeal by the town’s mayor, the SCMM sent food, clothing and shoes, provided for the people of Sulomai by Christians in other parts of Siberia as well as from Germany and the USA. The mission also helped to clear up the wreckage, planted vegetables and provided building materials and manpower for the construction of 20 houses, which they hoped to complete before the onset of winter.

Christian community

The Bible Society provided Scriptures, which were taken to the village in June by the SCMM. According to Mrs Kryukova, the response to the disaster by the Christian community has been noticed by the villagers, many of whom are not believers.