Drone helps family from flooded island to survive
Kateryna and her children found themselves trapped by flood waters, desperate for help, having run out of food and drinking water
- Українська
- English
Kateryna and her two children anxiously watched as flood waters approached their door, on an island near the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Following the destruction of a nearby hydroelectric power plant, thousands of cubic metres of water had spilled out from the Kakhovka Reservoir. The first two floors of the house had already flooded – now, trapped on the third floor, the family had run out of food and drinking water.
Then, when Kateryna heard the sound of a drone over the house, a slim ray of hope emerged.
"I screamed to my son that we had to get to the roof as fast as possible so that we would be noticed,” recalls Kateryna. “I showed them that there were three of us and that we had nothing to eat or drink. And Maksym put his hands together and shouted: ‘Help me, please!’”
Unleashing a flood
For five days after the Kakhovka dam burst, thousands of people were evacuated from the flooded area. The hardest part was evacuating residents of villages and islands on the left bank of the Dnipro River, on the contact line of the fighting in Ukraine.
Kateryna, her 12-year-old son Maksym and four-year-old daughter Masha were among those rescued. Since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine, life on the island of Chaika had been a struggle, with Kateryna separated from her parents by the contact line.
"All these months, we were cut off from everyone,” says the mother of two. “In winter, we collected firewood, and my children and I learned how to fish. Only 12 people out of a hundred remained on the island. We ate from the supplies that our neighbours allowed us to take from their homes."
Kateryna says that the island felt like a prison. Her son could not even attend school online and both children often went hungry.
But on 6 June, an already difficult situation became a crisis. Following the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, water began to rush onto the island.
"I was afraid that water was coming too fast, like ten centimetres every half hour,” says Kateryna. “Then another ten centimetres, another ten centimetres… At first, the children and I were walking up to our ankles in the water, then the water was knee-deep for the children, then for me, and then above Masha's height. And I didn't know what to do.”
They moved from their one-storey house to a neighbour's three-storey house. By that time, the island was already underwater. Garbage, belongings and untethered boats were floating away in the fast-moving water.
"It was horrifying to see everything going underwater. The children were exhausted.”
"Evacuation is coming. Hold on."
With just 1.5 metres of the building left above water, a Ukrainian drone flew over the house and spotted the family. The moment was captured by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. After the video was posted online, it went viral.
The drone returned to the house several times to drop water and food, along with a note stating that the evacuation was coming. On 7 June, the family was rescued by boat.
Today, sitting in her relatives' apartment in Kherson, Kateryna holds up a plastic bottle of water with a note taped to it, reading: "Evacuation is coming. Hold on. Don't panic. Santa :).” The note was sent by a drone operator of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service.
"I told my son that we have to save that note as a reminder of the things we had to experience,” says Kateryna, unable to hold back her tears. “I cried with happiness. It was support and hope – the things we needed in those moments.”
Although they are safe with their relatives, Kateryna and her children have no clothing, no money and no home. Thankfully, they and dozens of other affected families have received a humanitarian kit at one of the ‘Spilno’ children's centres in Kherson, run by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), containing soap, blankets, and other basic necessities.
Kateryna now dreams of peace and recovery.
“I want the children to finally have a normal childhood,” she says. “They have been through so much. I want them to finally feel safe, happy, and see something other than war and grief.”
