Satellite Images Show Scale of Flooding From Ukraine Dam Collapse

New satellite images released by Planet Labs late on Wednesday offer some of the clearest glimpses yet of the scale of flooding in cities and villages downstream from the destroyed Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have estimated that 41,000 people are at risk from flooding on both banks of the Dnipro River, where the dam is.

Kherson

Floodwaters inundated low-lying neighborhoods of Kherson, the Ukrainian-held regional capital about 40 miles downstream from the dam. Waters rose about 10 feet above normal in parts of the city, reaching the rooftops of houses.

Many areas on higher ground were untouched by the floodwaters, while rescuers in boats pulled stranded residents from their roofs or upper floors in neighborhoods near the river’s banks.

Residents of the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro, pleaded for help in chat groups and searched for missing loved ones. The exiled Ukrainian mayor of the city said the town was about 85 percent flooded.

On the Telegram messaging app, a Russian official described Oleshky as the “most difficult situation” and said it was “practically completely flooded.”

Korsunka

Korsunka, a Russian-controlled town around five miles downstream of the dam, is one of several inundated villages on the east bank. A reporter on Russia’s state-controlled Channel 1 rowed a boat through the streets of Korsunka and said that rescues were now possible only by water.