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FLOODS - May 21st 2001

The worst floods for 60 years as the Yenisei rose a whole 7 metres. Massive flooding all over the place - like in Yakutsk - and many people's hard work planting potatoes and vegetables west of the capital was drowned in the "dacha" satellite city there. People sitting on their roofs, the whole works. But at least this time there were some dykes, unlike 60 years ago... And that left 2m spare. All the same, parts of Kyzyl were flooded and we still do not knwo what happened elsewhere. Yakutsk and otehr cities in Siberia and Sakha were also very badly hit

Everyone in the band's relatives are all OK. But there was some worry that the power station would get flooded. And on top of its usual creaky existence that would spell disaster for the people of Kyzyl (pop: 100,000).

The main reason was a very heavy snowfall this year. Some people point the finger of blame at the Shagonar Lake - artificially created by the Sayano-Shushinskoye damn in the 1970s. Since when there's been wet humid weather in Tuva and not the usual dry stuff which the cows prefer.