Sochi is located on the Black Sea coast. It is considered the largest resort city, but only 411 524 people live here. Little known is the fact that there are about 66 rivers on the territory of the settlement (176 thousand sq. Km). It is clear that almost all of them are small, but some cause a lot of trouble to the local population and visitors.
a brief description of
The river is mountainous and flows in the Adler region, with a further discharge into the Black Sea. The reservoir originates in the central part of the village of Oryol-Izumrud, forming from two rivers: the Big and Small Herota, which flow from a lake called Serebryanoe. The general drainage basin with the Bolshaya Kherota River is 24.7 sq. M. km, and the length is only 14 km.
origin of name
The river Herota is a rather inconsistent name for the Slavic language. There is a version that the word "herota" arose due to an incorrect interpretation of the inscription. It is believed that in the 19th century during the Caucasian War it was along this river that 10 company soldiers were stationed. And on the shoulder straps of soldiers flaunted the Roman numeral "X". The local population began to call the military camp “Herot”, simply confusing the Roman numeral with the letter “X”, and the signs read “X company” on the signs. From here came the popular name - the river Herota, which was fixed in official documents. At the same time, earlier in military documents the reservoir had a similar name - Khorota. The toponym has Abkhazian roots, and is written and pronounced as Hariota. After all, it was here that the Ayriuts, who still live in Turkey, lived earlier. Therefore, it is believed that when specifying the boundaries and maps after the Caucasian War, the title simply made a mistake.
The river Herota - stress correctly put on the letter "o". And not because of the similarity with the consonant swear word, but from the word company, where the emphasis is also on the first vowel letter “o”.
Urban Pond Issues
The fate of this rivulet is not easy. Back in 2008, a spontaneous dump appeared on the banks of the reservoir, and after regular landslides, the garbage fell into the river. As a result, all living creatures died, not a single fish was left. Industrial waste is constantly dumped into the river. On the banks of the river Herota, there are not only residential buildings, but also industrial enterprises: a tea factory, a precast concrete plant, gas stations, a food factory, a wine and vodka factory and a bread factory.
Reclamation was carried out in 2011. However, a few months later, fuels and lubricants fell into the river due to the leakage of oil products, which were only partially collected. As a result, remediation measures were useless, and the fish finally died.
But, despite the shallow water, the river sometimes behaves aggressively, especially since its banks are carefully built up, almost "clamping" the reservoir into a stone vise. Naturally, at the very first, even small flood, water rises, since there is no place to “go” the river, it simply leaves its channel.
Disaster of 2015
On June 25, at the height of the holiday season, a tragedy erupted in Sochi. The river Herota and several other mountain streams overflowed the banks. As a result, the Imereti Lowland was severely damaged, more than 400 houses were flooded.
In a few hours, almost the entire city turned into a small sea. In some villages, people could only travel by boat. Electricity is disconnected almost everywhere; there are reports that there are breaks in the gas pipeline. An unthinkable number of cars got into an accident that day. The train station and airport were closed.
After the flood, many versions appeared on the Web, to the point that the disaster occurred due to the huge discharge of water from the Silver Lake reservoir. However, no confirmation of this was found, but city damage was estimated at over 760 million rubles.
In fact, everything turned out to be much simpler. In addition to the fact that about 100 mm of precipitation fell in the mountains that day, despite the fact that the norm is 130 mm per month, the river simply had nowhere to go. Downstream, the channel is too narrowed by retaining walls. The flood began in the floodplain of Little Herota, in the area of the first bridge, which is located 100 meters from the hydraulic unit. Even lower on the banks there is a chaotic development of residential and household buildings. And some buildings were generally erected in the very bed of the Herota River (photo is a confirmation of this). Therefore, the disaster occurred solely due to anthropogenic nature.
That day, victims were avoided. Probably because everything happened during the day and the Ministry of Emergencies managed to instantly respond. At the same time, the water left as quickly as it came.
I would like to believe that this will not happen in the future, since the local authorities will have the strength to solve the problem of the chaotic development of Sochi. But so far, everything is happening as it was in 2015, and the road sign “r. Herota ”occupies a leading position in the ranking of the funniest names on the territory of our state.