Kyiv was awaiting a new catastrophe, one of truly biblical proportions. People rushed to the airport and railroad ticket offices, but soon no tickets remained for planes, trains, or buses leaving the capital of Ukraine. People began storming ticket offices.17

On May 6, the Chernobyl commission of the Ukrainian Politburo, led by Premier Oleksandr Liashko, heard a report indicating that more than 55,000 people had left Kyiv the previous day, double the average number of railroad passengers leaving the city or passing through it. Close to 20,000 had left in buses and cars, and 9,000 by air