The situation with the flood in Jekabpils on the right bank of Daugava River or Krustpils side has stabilised. Unfortunately, the situation remains unstable on the left bank of the river, as reported by Jekabpils Mayor Raivis Ragainis on Monday, the 16th of January.
He said the right bank on the side of Krustpils is «stable enough». This means residents who had previoulsy evacuated from there may be allowed to return there. Until then it is necessary to determine if the local utilities company is able to deal with all the wastewater.
The situation on the left side or Jekabpils remains unstable. Although the water level has dropped slightly, it remains high.
Efforts to reinforce the dam protecting the city continues.
Looking at the stability of the dam, Ragainins said he hopes it will be possible to overcome the biggest risk. The dam is in poor shape. However, if nothing extraordinary happens, it will be possible to maintain the dam. The head of the city council said every now and then the dam shows signs of weakness, but reinforcement efforts continue along its entire length.
Most of the publicly important institutions in Jekabpils remain active, the council stresses. Police department, the polyclinic, bus park and municipal client service centres remain open. Education institutions are closed down for three days.
Ragainis said now the city needs to start thinking about clean-up efforts of flooded territories now that the water level has dropped. This means pumping out the water to ensure damages to residents’ owned property is as low as possible.
School is out as well. No education is performed, remotely included, because there are interruptions in communications. Ragainis admits the flood is not over. On top of that, it is necessary to wait until the snow and ice mass is carried away from the city. He reminds, however, that there will be spring floods as well.
Deputy chief of the State Fire and Rescue Service Mārtiņš Baltmanis told Latvijas Radio that the situation in Jekabpils is difficult, but the service has enough resources to to provide the necessary aid to the city to combat the flood. According to the information from the service, 35 people were rescued in Jekabpils last weekend. These people refused the initial evacuation offer and only called in rescuers when the situation became critical.
Minister of the Interior Māris Kučinskis told TV3 existing municipal resources are currently enough to deal with the crisis. Nevertheless, he said various interior affairs services are prepared to provide assistance.
The head of the municipality is the most important figure now. He does an excellent job, said the minister. According to him, there is no need to compose any special civil protection structure for such cases.
Also read: Jekabpils close to declaring state of emergency due to intense flooding