Glacier Pushes Avalanche of Ice Onto Village; Scores Are Missing
By MICHAEL WINES
OSCOW, Sept. 21 � A mammoth chunk of ice split from a glacier in the
Caucasus Mountains and swept downhill late Friday, leaving perhaps 100
people dead and a 12-mile trail of devastation across roads, rivers and at
least one village in southwestern Russia.
About 500 rescue workers were searching for survivors today, and officials
said the missing included the 27 members of a film crew led by one of
Russia's most popular directors and actors. They said there was no firm
estimate of the number of people who might have been carried away in the
avalanche because the area is popular with mountain climbers and hikers.
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But Mikhail Shatalov, a senior official in the North Ossetia region where
the disaster occurred, told the Itar-Tass news agency that the death toll
could reach 100.
Aerial views of the disaster area broadcast tonight on Russian television
showed a broad river of black mud and debris settled over the otherwise
green landscape at the mountains' base.
"The tragedy in North Ossetia is a very grave catastrophe," President
Vladimir V. Putin said in Moscow. "What counts now is to find the missing
people and restore the structure for supplying the region."
Officials quoted by the Interfax news agency said the huge Maili glacier, in
the Caucasus peaks on Russia's border with Georgia, had shed a slice of ice
up to 100 million cubic feet in size and as much as 330 feet thick.
The glacier broke into house-size chunks as it slid downhill, felling trees,
triggering mudslides and blocking at least one river, which threatened to
cause floods.
Reuters said the slide clipped one village, Karmadon, burying homes where
about 30 people lived. The number of survivors was not known.
Near Gizel, another village, "we thought that water was pouring down,"
Reuters quoted one resident, Elbrus Doyev, as saying. "When it had all
stopped, we came out of our houses and saw huge pieces of ice."
Officials said at least 15 people had been found alive, and nearby tourist
centers housing another 60 had been evacuated. Crews were working to bring
supplies to two villages that were cut off when the avalanche blocked roads
with a six-foot layer of mud and ice.
Among those reported missing were two border guards and a film crew led by
Sergei Bodrov Jr., the director of the wildly popular films "Brother" and
"Brother 2," about a man who metes out his own brand of justice in the
Russia of the lawless 1990's, and later in the United States.
Mr. Bodrov's crew was shooting a movie near the glacier and contacted
co-workers outside the avalanche zone about 20 minutes before the disaster.
The crew has not been heard from since, a spokesman for the film company
told Moscow's news radio station Echo Moskvy.
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