KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Rivers across Ukraine overflowed their banks and flooded dozens of towns on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of some 1,000 people.
Officials are particularly concerned about flooding in the 18-mile zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant - the site of the world's worst nuclear power accident, an explosion in 1986.
Thousands of homes were flooded and more than 10,000 people were affected by the floodwaters, which have risen as this year's record snowfalls have melted in the spring thaw, said Oleh Bykov, spokesman for the civil defense service.
The worst-hit regions were Luhanska in eastern Ukraine and the Rivnenska and Khmelnitska regions in western Ukraine, where 55 towns were underwater.
The Prypyat River, which runs right next to the reactor destroyed in the Chernobyl blast, has risen about 30 inches recently.
Bykov said it is possible, though unlikely, that the floods could carry contaminated water into the nearby Dnipro River, which provides about a third of Ukraine's drinking water.
''We are constantly monitoring the zone from the ground and from helicopters, and so far we don't see any danger,'' he said.