Texas Baptist Men helping aid, evacuate people in Ukraine following dam collapse
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — The race is on to save and evacuate as many people as possible from a destroyed dam in Ukraine, and a local group is helping on the ground.
Both Russia and Ukraine are pointing fingers at each other for the collpase of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine. The Soviet-era dam and hydroelectric power plant is in an area controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian officials said as a result of the dam's destruction, 40,000 people are in direct danger with uncontrolled flooding into nearby villages.
"It's people being displaced immediately, there is no rain that caused this flood," Rand Jenkins said.
Jenkins is a spokesman for the Texas Baptist Men, who've been in the conlifct region since the war began 14 months ago.
Images sent to CBS News Texas by the disaster relief organization show just some of the work they're doing to help countless families in need. Jenkins said they're helping with evacuations and buying needed supplies and food.
He said the uncertainty of living in a war-torn country has been made worse now, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling it "the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades."
Jenkins said their efforts will stay in place as long as they are needed, and the best way for others to help is through monetary donations.
"What we're able to send now is funding for sheer fact-of-urgency," he said. "They can buy the rafts, they can buy the food, the generators there much faster than we can buy them here and ship them there."