7 March, Vitebsk /BELTA/. Rescuers of the Vitebsk region are practising their readiness for the flood season, the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations informed BELTA.
To ensure a high level of readiness of the region's services and organisations for prompt response to possible incidents, the operational response centre at the Regional Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations is monitoring the situation. Situational maps of the predicted flood situation for each district and the region as a whole have been developed. Action algorithms for involving forces and means for blasting operations have been developed. Routes and bypasses to emergency sites in potentially water-blocked settlements have been identified. A situational headquarters has been established in the region. The composition of operational groups for deployment to areas of potential flooding related to the spring flood passage has been determined.
Work on the preparation and implementation of measures for the safe passage of the spring flood in the Vitebsk region is being carried out in accordance with the action plan approved at a meeting of the commission for emergency situations under the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. In the units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Vitebsk region, 2 consolidated detachments and 20 consolidated response groups have been formed for the flood period, equipped with 86 units of equipment, including motor and rowing boats, lifebuoys and vests, motor pumps, trimaran boom layers, a mobile lighting unit, a mobile diesel generator with a capacity of 100 kW, medical hospital modules, wet and dry type immersion suits, sledges, rescue boards, and rescuer immersion suits.
Based on long-term observations, analysis of spring flood passage in the Vitebsk region, and forecasts from the Republican Hydrometeorological Centre, the flood situation is being monitored. The possibility of flooding of territories and settlements is noted in 19 districts of the region. The flood zone may affect 75 settlements, 282 residential buildings, 1.2 thousand people, 15 bridges and road sections, as well as farmsteads, basements of residential buildings, and outbuildings. Flooding by meltwater may occur in residential areas lacking a collector-gutter network for water drainage within the built-up area.