Flood Toll Rises in Russia

Heavy rain and wind swept southern Russia’s Black Sea coast Friday, threatening more of the flooding that has killed at least 34 people in the region. This village was hit with a 6 1/2-foot wall of water.

At least five people died in other parts of Europe this week in floods caused by pounding storms, some dropping record rainfall.

The wall of water roared through Nizhnaya Bakanskaya on Thursday.

Yevdokia Aksyonova, 72, a resident who returned from higher ground, found that a huge, uprooted tree had rammed her house, smashing it to bits.

“How can I live now?” she asked, choking back sobs and huddling with her dog--the only thing she did not lose--in a shack that survived the flood. “I’ve lost everything I’ve saved during my life.”

The governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, Alexander Tkachev, told state television that the flooding had caused an estimated $32 million in damage there. An undetermined number of people are missing.

Sixteen of the dead in Russia were found in the village of Shirokaya Balka, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Thursday’s heavy rains forced the evacuation of at least 600 people, destroyed at least 20 homes and damaged 70 others in eight villages near Novorossiysk, the ministry reported.

Authorities were evacuating people from Shirokaya Balka, Abrau-Dyurso and another village Friday as new storms hit the region, threatening more flooding.