Soviet Dam Bursts in Mud Slide, 19 Die : 9 in Remote Village Still Missing; Houses, Farms Also Destroyed

MOSCOW â€”  A mud slide triggered by torrential rains ripped through a dam in the Central Asian republic of Tadzhikistan today and sent water crashing through a remote village, killing at least 19 people, the official Tass press agency reported.

Nine people were missing more than 12 hours after the disaster, which also seriously injured six people, Tass said. At least 11 people initially reported missing have been found alive, the news agency said.

Tass said several days of heavy rains caused the mud slide that burst through the walls of the Sargazan Dam, sending the reservoir’s contents crashing through the village of Sargazan.

Fifty-three houses, a livestock breeding farm and a poultry farm were swept away in the torrent, along with telephone lines and ground crops. Several small bridges and a section of railroad track vanished.

Near Hydroelectric Project

Sargazan lies in the Dangara district of Tadzhikistan, near a huge hydroelectric project at Nurek, one of the biggest in the Soviet Union.

Ambulance aircraft and helicopters were brought into the Kulyab region about 60 miles southeast of the Tadzhikistani capital of Dushanbe and only about 25 miles north of the border with Afghanistan.

“Special groups are searching for the missing. Tents, food and pharmaceuticals are being shipped in,� the news agency said.

Tass said several Communist Party officials, including members of the republic’s Central Committee, went to the stricken area to supervise relief operations.

Critical Situations

The news agency also said critical situations have developed in the region of Kurgan-Tyubinsky about 280 miles northeast of Dushanbe because of heavy rains.

On Sunday, Soviet weather experts predicted record spring floods in the Ukraine republic after extraordinary winter snowfalls this year.

In the Soviet republic of Georgia, about 100 people have been killed this year by flooding and avalanches triggered by heavy snow that reached 15 feet in some areas.

The relatively prompt reporting of today’s incident coincided with a new Soviet policy of giving detailed information about most accidents and natural disasters in the country.

Latest in Series of Disasters

It was the latest in a series of accidents and natural disasters that have hit the Soviet Union in the last year.

Accidents in recent months have included a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in the Donetsk region in the Ukraine, which was reported on Dec. 25, the day after it occurred.