Heavy Flooding Across Moldova Kills at Least 15
MOSCOW — Heavy flooding across the southwestern Soviet republic of Moldova has killed at least 15 people and damaged the republic’s rich farmlands, the official Moldovapress agency said Saturday.
A local journalist, speaking from the capital, Kishinyov, said floodwaters had inundated 750,000 acres of Moldova’s farmland, including vineyards, orchards, vegetable plots and wheat fields.
But the journalist, George Constantin, said it is too early to say just how much of the crops were lost.
“The damage is tens of billions of rubles in any case,” Constantin said.
Earlier, the republic’s agriculture minister was quoted by Moldovan radio as saying the 750,000 acres of crops had been completely destroyed. But one local official called the figure “badly exaggerated.”
Constantin said the heavy rains had stopped and the floodwaters are receding, but forecasters have predicted more rain soon.
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