Severe flash floods in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region have killed at least 99 people and affected nearly 13,000 in the area’s worst natural disaster in decades, officials said Saturday. Residents were caught completely by surprise by the force of the waters, which ripped up paving and traffic lights and flooded the ground floors of houses within minutes, witnesses and officials said. One woman reportedly had to spend a night up a tree before being rescued from the floods caused by exceptionally heavy rainstorms. In the district of Krymsk, the area worst hit by the disaster, officials had already discovered 88 bodies including that of a 10-year-old child, regional police spokesman Igor Zhelyabin told AFP. Officials have not been able to explain the large number of deaths, except by saying that the disaster struck while residents were asleep. “Everything happened at night and very quickly,” the regional administration said in a statement. Zhelyabin declined to speculate on the reasons behind the massive toll, saying Moscow-based investigators were conducting a probe.
