Rescuers in boats pulled hundreds of people off the roofs of their flooded homes after the Kakhovka dam collapsed in southern Ukraine, volunteers and local authorities said today. But many are still waiting for help.

In desperation, friends and relatives of those trapped are making appeals on social networking sites, posting photos and giving the exact location of homes. Among those still waiting for rescue teams are many elderly people and some children.

The coordinator of a volunteer group formed through the Telegram app said he is constantly receiving calls and the situation is more critical today compared to yesterday, as food and drinking water available to flood victims are running out.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of Kherson, said at midday that about 4,300 people had been evacuated so far, including 171 children and 42 disabled people. According to emergency services, more than 14,000 homes have been flooded.

Another official, Andrei Alekseyenko, said the Dnieper River had risen to 12 meters in the worst-hit areas of Oleski and Ola Pristan. He also said 344 people who had taken refuge on roofs or upper floors of their homes were taken away by boat.

On Telegram, some sent messages expressing their gratitude for the successful rescues.

Olena Glazova, a Ukrainian from Oleski who now lives in Romania, said 10 of her neighbors were rescued from the attic of a house on Tymchuk Street. Among them were at least four elderly people and an 11-year-old child. He didn’t know what happened next.

Locals are organizing the rescue operations themselves, he said. “People organize and save each other,” he argued.

New appeals are constantly popping up on internet newsgroups.

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“Evacuation is needed… Two or three elderly people are on the roof. Possibly with a cat and a dog,” one moderator wrote.

One man, Sergei, told Reuters he had been talking to his 83-year-old father-in-law, a resident of Olesky, for several days before the dam collapsed. “His health is bad and he doesn’t have a phone. The last information we had was that there was a lot of water on the road, up to a person’s height. Houses collapsed and were swept away by the water,” he said.

In the village of Korsunka, where even the roofs of the houses have been covered, 26-year-old Vitali said that the houses were filled with water within 15 minutes and the residents did not have time to leave. His own house was swept away by the waters.

Ruslana, a woman who left Kherson earlier this year for Crimea to give birth to her son, said she has not been in touch with her 72-year-old grandfather, Nikolai, in the village of Kardasinka for two days. “I spend most of my time on the Internet, in discussion groups, there is no information. I am waiting for him or someone else to call me, to tell me that everything is fine. Then I will breathe,” said the young woman.