Silver Spring, Maryland--More than 1,300 flood survivors in Ukraine are receiving food baskets and personal hygiene items from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) after heavy rains in July submerged 40,600 homes and nearly 84,000 acres, or 34,000 hectares, of farmland in western areas in late July.

From July 23 to July 26, downpours hit western Ukraine, forcing thousands from their homes, and submerging hundreds of towns and villages. Nearly 40 people have been listed as either dead or missing since the onset of the storms, which government officials are calling the worst storm to hit Ukraine in a century. In response to the tragedy, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko declared a three-month state of emergency in the region.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency, more than 422 miles (679 km) of highway and motor roads and more than 900 bridges were destroyed in the storms, leaving more than 300 towns and villages without electricity, downing communication lines, and blocking food access routes throughout five regions of western Ukraine. Survivors are desperately in need of clean water, food, medicine, hygiene items, and clothing.

ADRA is assisting 330 families in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions, two of the most severely affected in the country, providing food baskets stocked with rice, macaroni, sugar, flour, buckwheat, vegetable oil, and canned fish. Each basket also includes personal hygiene items such as bathing soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, and cleanser, items that can also be used to disinfect homes, reducing the spread of diseases.

"The food will meet the nutritional needs of people during the first weeks after the flooding," said Vasyl Hanulich, country director for the ADRA Ukraine office.

Aid distribution is being coordinated with local administration in order to avoid duplication, and to ensure assistance is given to those most in need, including elderly and disabled residents, large families, and survivors who lost all their belongings.

The regions of Ukraine most affected are Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Transkarpatsky, Ternopil and L'viv. In Ivano-Frankivsk alone, 50,000 are suffering from the impact of the floodwaters. The local economy has also been left in distress, since most residents of western Ukraine work as farmers. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that flooding in the Ivano-Frankivsk region destroyed as much as 75 per cent of planted crops. The heavy flooding also caused $80 million in losses to the country's agricultural sector, according to Ukrainian Deputy Agriculture Minister Serhiy Melnyk.

To send your contribution to ADRA's Emergency Response Fund, please contact ADRA at 1.800.424.ADRA (2372) or give online at www.adra.org

ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.

Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.

-END-

Author: Nadia McGill

Media Contact: Hearly Mayr Director for Public Awareness ADRA International 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 Phone: 301.680.6376 E-mail: Media.Inquiries@adra.org