New drone footage taken of the Chernobyl-zone city of Pripyat has cast an eerie light on the wasteland left behind after the city was abandoned decades ago.
The Ukrainian town of Pripyat was founded in 1970 as one of several so-called “Nuclear Towns”, meant to accommodate the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. By the mid-1980s, it was sprawling with schools, kindergartens, a cinema, swimming pool, and a number of shops and cafes for its inhabitants.
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It was, in all senses of the term, a thriving city.
In 1986, Pripyat had a population of almost 50,000 people.
There were plans in effect to construct more housing in anticipation of even further population growth.
But on April 25 and 26, a major nuclear accident , the worst in history, would see the city suddenly and completely empty.
A reactor at the Nuclear power plant exploded and burned
Firefighters attempted to battle the blaze, and helicopters eventually dropped sand in an attempt to subdue the fire. Two people were killed in the explosion and many more hospitalized.
Thirty-six hours after the disaster began, surrounding cities (including Pripyat) were evacuated.
The Soviet Union evacuated 335,000 people and established a 19-mile-wide “exclusion zone” around the plant.
A reported 28 people died as a result of the accident with more than 100 injured.
International researchers predict that about 4,000 people were exposed to high levels of radiation, leading to radiation-related cancer, while another 5,000 were exposed to lower levels of radiation with the same possible fate.
In 2016, a steel containment structure was deployed around the remains of the reactor to contain the radiation.
Cleanup efforts and efforts to monitor contamination are expected to continue until at least 2065.
Since the disaster, Pripyat has been an abandoned ghost town, used only as a laboratory to study fallout patterns.
Now, drone footage taken by Warren Urbexing and posted to the YouTube channel Abandoned Explorer showcase the eerie remnants of this wasteland.
Check out the full video below.
The drone slowly moves over the remaining buildings of the city, exploring the overgrowth of trees and greenery.
The absence of a population has left the town susceptible to nature which has grown up and around the empty city.
“This is a stunning example of how nature can recover and take back the land after humans have left,” one Youtube user commented.
A hauntingly abandoned Ferris wheel can be seen at one point in the footage.
This image works perfectly to highlight the significant absence of people felt throughout the ghost town, once an urban sprawl and now an abandoned wasteland.
A new HBO series titled “Chernobyl” is quickly gaining popularity among viewers.
According to LADBible , the five-part mini-series is based on the nuclear disaster and explores the build-up to the explosion, as well as its aftermath.
h/t: LADBible
