The spring is the most expected season during the winter in Yakutia. When it comes, it brings a great joy, as it gets warmer, snow melts, ice starts floating on rivers. A spectacular nature event, but…

The spring brings disasters as well. They happen to be devastating and hundreds of private houses and households go under water. This weekend the disaster came to the town of Srednekolymsk (population: 3500 people) situated on the west bank of the Kolyma River in North-East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

The ice jam occured on the river (see the photo further) and the level of water raised dramatically and the most part of the town went under water. At least, 1000 inhabitants were evacuated by the Russian Emergency Ministry yesterday, May 21st, 2012.

Ice jam on the Kolyma River. The arrow shows the location. Srednedkolymsk is on the right side.

Srednekolymsk residents, Ivan Shadrin, Masha Galitskaya & Lyuba Konstantinova, keep reporting and uploading photographs from the flood site on the Russian social website VK.com.

See what’s happing up there in Kolyma, East-North Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

Today, the level of water in Srednekolymsk is reported to be getting lower.