VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - Well over a thousand people were evacuated and many more suffered power cuts after floods in the Russian Caucasus swept away bridges and cut communication lines, emergency services and regional government officials said here on Wednesday.
Some 25,000 homes in the republic of North Ossetia were left without gas after the floods and the motorway that links Russia to Georgia was closed after it was swamped by a mudslide.
In the war-battered Chechen capital Grozny, 200 homes were evacuated because of flooding while 50 homes in the west of the republic suffered a similar fate. Six bridges in the Vedeno gorges were swept away by high waters and telephone lines in the same southwest region of Chechnya were down, emergency services said.
Around 1,500 people were also evacuated from their homes in the Republic of Ingushetia, where several refugee camps housing Chechens are located.
One of the refugee camps was destroyed, leaving 200 displaced persons without shelter.
05/11/2005 14:58 GMT