KIEV, July 28 (Reuters) - Floods in western Ukraine have killed 22 people, destroyed homes, farmland and roads and prompted the evacuation of 20,000 residents, officials said on Monday. Television footage showed President Viktor Yushchenko wading knee-deep through village streets, visiting devastated homes and discussing action plans with local officials at the weekend. Ukraine's cabinet was called into emergency session to discuss assistance and repair work. The National Security and Defence Council, chaired by the president, was also due to meet. A senior government official at the weekend described the flooding as the worst in a century. Water levels after five days of uninterrupted rain remained dangerously high on the Prut and Dnestr rivers. More than 40,000 homes were flooded. Television pictures showed homes with water creeping up to attic windows, roads washed away and vast expanses of inundated farmland. At least six of the dead were children and two had been struck by lightning, the Emergencies Ministry said. In neighbouring Romania, the Interior Ministry said four people died in floods in the northeastern county of Maramures and two were still missing. Authorities said some of the region's 12,000 evacuated residents were returning to their homes as floodwaters receded. However, officials said waters coming down from Ukraine could still cause considerable damage. More than 4,000 police and troops were reinforcing dams with sandbags and food was being distributed to residents. Meteorologists forecast dry weather in both countries. (Reporting by Ron Popeski in Kiev and Marius Zaharia in Bucharest; editing by Robert Hart)
A man sits beside a flooded road in a settlement near the city of Galych in the Ivano-Frankivsk region July 27, 2008. Floods described by a senior government official as the ...
