by Today will long be remembered by the residents of the town of Yaremche and tourists who came to relax in the Carpathians. June 23, 2020 – this date will become synonymous with words like flood and inundation. Heavy rains and widespread downpours have led to a real collapse that affected almost all towns and villages in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and Transcarpathia. 
PHOTO: Pavel Kashchuk
Once picturesque mountain streams and waterfalls have turned into real “Niagara Falls” – the strongest mountain torrents and landslides have interrupted communication on certain sections of roads, and the road near Mikulinichi (Yaremche-Bukovel) is completely blocked. In addition, one of the most popular pedestrian bridges in the Carpathians, located in Yaremche, was simply destroyed by the elements – it was washed away by the high waters.
Carpathians. The Flood Washed Away the Bridge in Yaremche
As of 19:00, as Ostap Bileichuk, the deputy head of the regional National Police, said on air in “Ukraine 24,” due to floods in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, about 450 households in 13 districts are flooded. These are such districts as Kolomyisky, Verkhovynsky, Kalushsky, Rozhnyatynsky, Kosovsky, Dolynsky, and others. 73 settlements are partially flooded. Three villages are currently without power.
About 15 km of roads, as well as 15 car and 9 pedestrian bridges, are flooded. Traffic is completely stopped due to landslides on the M-09 state road – the road from Ivano-Frankivsk to the Transcarpathian region, because the stream broke through the channel, and at the moment any passage is impossible. The police completely blocked the movement. 
Since rains continue to flood many towns and villages in Western Ukraine, local authorities are asking residents and tourists to refrain from traveling. It is worth noting that one of the main versions of the “all-Carpathian” flood is deforestation – shocking photos of the consequences of deforestation not for the faint-hearted.
It’s too early to talk about the consequences, but there is another side of the coin – terribly littered rivers of the Carpathians, which have overflowed, resulting in a risk of an ecological disaster… P.S. As seen in the photos of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ukrainian Sherp all-terrain vehicles were sent to eliminate the flood and assist local residents, which, by the way, have participated in firefighting abroad. 
Consequences and Risks of the Flood
Rescuers predict large-scale consequences of the high water for the region:
- in the mountainous part of the Prut River basin and the Siret River basin, the water level will rise by 1-2 m, in some areas (in places where the channel narrows) — up to 2.5 m;
- the threat of mudslides will form in places of heavy precipitation in mountainous areas, and significant local and slope runoff may also form;
- water may overflow onto the floodplain and flood agricultural lands in Storozhynetsky, Putylskyy, Vyzhnytsky, and Hlybokskyy districts (Chernivtsi region);
- the water level will rise not only in the rivers of the Carpathian region (basins of the Uzh, Latoritsa, Tysa, Prut, Siret, Dniester rivers), on the Vishna River (Syan basin), but also in the tributaries of the Dniester in the Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions (water levels will continue to rise by 0.5-1.5 m, and in some sections of the Prut and Dniester rivers — up to 2-2.5 m above current marks);
- there is a probability of a new wave of flooding of economic facilities located near the rivers, as well as local roads; in the Chernivtsi region, there is a risk of flooding of border service facilities.
