On Tuesday over 700 people worked to find the 20 sailors
that are still missing after the Sunday storm that caused for a tanker, which
was carrying fuel oil, to split into two in the northern Black
Sea.
Bodies of three sailors were found yesterday, according to
the Russian Rescue Service.
The three sailors were from a cargo ship that transported
sulfur and sank in the northern Black Sea, near the Kerch Strait.
Five more members from the same ship were still missing.
According to CNN the other 15 missing sailors were from the
freighter that was carrying scrap metal and sank also in the northern Black Sea.
The missing sailors are believed to be dead.
The 730 people that were working to find the missing sailors
and to clean up used 13 vessels and four helicopters, and other pieces of
machinery.
Due to the bad weather on Monday the rescuers only worked
for two hours.
The relatives of the missing arrived at the port city of Temryuk, situated on the Russian part of the Kerch Strait.
Local authorities tried to provide shelter and support to the families.
On Sunday five ships sank due to the storms in the Black Sea. Other ships ran aground. Out of the five one
was carrying 4,000 tons of fuel oil and split in half and sank in the strait of
Kerch. More than 1,000 tons of fuel oil was spilled.
After the incident the oil that reached the shores covered
the birds and it could be seen on the beaches how they where trying to fly.
Alexander Tkachev, governor of Russia’s
Krasnodar
region, said that almost 30,000 birds died.
“The damage is so great that it’s hard to assess. It can be
equated with an ecological catastrophe,” he added.
This incident was declared an “environmental disaster” by
the Greenpeace.
The rescue operations are to be inspected by he Russian and
Ukrainian prime ministers.
Other three ships sank in the Kerch Strait.
The three ships were carrying each 2,000 tons of sulfur.
The bad weather from Sunday continued on Tuesday with strong
winds and heavy rain. On Thursday the weather is expected to get worse.
