The flood - albeit not biblical, but still atypical for these places - was the result of a flood when the Ukhta River in the Komi Republic, due to an abnormally high temperature, overflowed its banks and flooded a large area with buildings. Among the latter, according to 'Komsomolskaya Pravda', was the St. Nicholas Church of Ukhta, the oldest in the city, standing on Zarechnaya Street. When the water flooded part of the parish buildings and got close to the church, the clergy of the temple began to save everything valuable: books, church utensils - and, of course, the main shrine - the relics of Nicholas the Wonderworker. They rejected the offer of the EMERCOM employees to evacuate and only went up to the second floor of the building. Soon, they recall, a real flood began. “The water rose very quickly, in an hour the temple, the altar, the fraternal building, the belfry and the trade shop were flooded. And every hour the water rose higher and higher, ”says the rector of the parish, Hieromonk Agafangel. Even when after a while the water subsided, for a long time it was possible to get into the temple only in a diving suit, moving in the icy water: even though it is May outside, the latitude of Ukhta is not at all southern. After a devastating flood, the temple will have to be repaired: the iconostasis must be restored, the tiles must be moved on the floor, and the drywall, from which some of the walls are made, must be replaced. The parish rector has already announced the start of collecting donations for the restoration temple. Members of the All-Russian Orthodox Society 'Forty forties' were among the first to respond to the request for help. The temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Ukhta stands ten meters from the river of the same name. However, before its waters in the flood almost never reached the church. Only one such case is known, which happened thirty years ago - in 1989.
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