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Russia floods could see up to 100,000 evacuated: minister
Topic Started: 18 Aug 2013, 12:57 AM (114 Views)
skibboy
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17 AUGUST 2013

Russia floods could see up to 100,000 evacuated: minister

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A man rows a boat across a flooded street during spring floodings in the suburb of the town of Bryansk, on April 19, 2013.

AFP - More than 17,000 people have been evacuated in Russia's flood-hit Far East, a minister said Saturday, warning this figure could reach 100,000 as floodwaters wreak havoc across the region.

The deluge has been declared a natural disaster in the worst-affected regions of Amur and Khabarovsk, where Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the army to participate in rescue operations.

Minister of Regional Development Viktor Ishayev said more than 17,000 people had been evacuated and "in the worst-case scenario up to 100,000 people could be evacuated."

In a video conference with regional leaders Putin was quoted by local news agencies as saying: "We should not relax, there is still an enormous amount of work."

"Large areas are flooded, telephone and electricity lines, roads and bridges have been damaged in dozens of towns. The damage is enormous," Putin added.

He promised that all damaged infrastructure would be repaired, and that while the situation was difficult it was "under control".

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said 3.2 billion rubles (73 million euros) had been put aside for the affected regions, according to the Interfax news agency.

Temporary shelters have been opened up, mostly in schools, to shelter evacuated residents.

Massive rains since the end of July saw the Amur River -- the longest in Siberia which borders northeastern China -- burst its banks, as well as one of its tributaries the Zeya.

Devastating floods last July in the town of Krymsk in the south west killed 172 people and raised questions about the authorities' handling of disasters.

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skibboy
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Perilous floods prompt tens of thousands to scramble in Russia's Far East

By Igor Krotov and Greg Botelho, CNN
August 18, 2013

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Flood waters hide the streets in Blagoveshchensk, Russia, on Friday, August 16.

(CNN) -- Catastrophic flooding has prompted the evacuation of thousands upon thousands of people in Russia's Far East, a government ministry said Sunday, spurring hasty efforts to set up housing for the displaced.

Russia's emergency ministry said Sunday that 18,000 people had been affected in three regions north of China not far from the Sea of Okhotsk. RIA Novosti, a state-run news agency, identified the affected regions as the Amur region, Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region.

This report, citing an emergency ministry spokesperson, had an even larger number of people affected after heavy rains spurred the floods -- 32,000, of which 17,000 had been evacuated.

The evacuees had lived in thousands of homes and apartment buildings across 121 impacted towns and villages, including some like Amurskaya Oblast, Khabarovskiy Krai and Evreiskaya Oblast that were particularly devastated.

Authorities rushed to set up 166 temporary shelters and move in food, water and medical supplies, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said, according to RIA Novosti.

That report, for instance, said that a plane had headed to the city of Blagoveshchensk with 53 tons of aid, including food, life jackets and boats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting Saturday on the floods, after which he told local governors to be involved personally in the response.

"No one must be forgotten, and no one must be lost," he said, as reported by RIA Novosti.

The amount of rain should decrease, and the pace water levels are rising should slow down, after Tuesday, said local enviromental official Vyacheslav Parshin.

The water in that river -- which is expected to reach 7 meters (23 feet) by August 25 -- had never been so high, Parshin said according to RIA Novosti.

The emergency ministry's report made no mention that anyone had been killed or injured as a result.

But flooding in the expansive nation of Russia has proved deadly before.

Last July, at least 141 people died after floods surged through southern Russia's Krasnodar region, state-run media reported, citing Russia's Interior Ministry.

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skibboy
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19 AUGUST 2013

Russia evacuates 19,000 from flooded Far East

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File picture shows a local resident looking into the Amur river in Khabarovsk, eastern Russia, December 24, 2005.

AFP - Floods in the Russian Far East broke historic records Monday as authorities evacuated over 19,000 people from affected areas and warned of a further rise in water levels.

Levels in the Amur river which flows from Russia to China broke historic records in the city of Khabarovsk and rain continued to batter the region as authorities sent out bottled water and administered shelters for displaced residents.

Russia's state weather service Rosgidromet forecast a further rise in water levels because of the continuing rains in the Khabarovsk region.

The maximum rise is expected later this week, head of Rosgidromet Alexander Frolov said on television.

Over 19,000 people have been evacuated from the regions of Amur, Khabarovsk, and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the emergency ministry said.

The Amur river is expected to rise in Khabarovsk, a city of 600,000 people, to nearly eight metres (26 feet), the regional branch of the emergency ministry said.

It warned of imminent flooding of key streets and energy infrastructure.

Water also damaged the region's agriculture, with 57 percent of all crops hit by the flood in the Amur region, according to the agriculture ministry.

Massive rains since the end of July saw the Amur River -- which borders northeastern China -- burst its banks, as well as one of its tributaries the Zeya.

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skibboy
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20 AUGUST 2013

Russia scrambles to contain record floods

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This picture taken on August 19, 2013 shows a general view of the flooded village of Bolshoi Ussuriysky island close to city of the Khabarovsk in Russia's Far Eastern Amur region.

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This picture taken on August 19, 2013 shows a car in a flooded street in the village of Bolshoi Ussuriysky island close to city of the Khabarovsk in Russia's Far Eastern Amur region.

AFP - Russians in the Far East on Tuesday battled rising floodwaters as authorities evacuated more than 23,000 people and scrambled to prevent the outbreak of disease.

Heavy rains pounding Khabarovsk, a Far Eastern city located near the Chinese border, since July have swelled the local Amur River to nearly seven metres -- a level unseen since monitoring of the area began in 1895.

The floodwaters damaged property, infrastructure and crops, displaced tens of thousands and raised fresh questions about the Russian government's readiness to handle natural disasters.

There have been no reports of fatalities but more than 23,000 people have been evacuated so far, the office of the Kremlin's Far Eastern envoy Viktor Ishayev said in a statement.

Television footage showed locals making their way through a flooded area by boat and a cow wading through muddy waters, submerged nearly up to its neck.

Locals complained that faeces were finding their way into the water.

"The saddest part is that we are being flooded in shit," a local man said in televised remarks.

The floods have affected the Yakutia, Primorsky Krai and Amur and Khabarovsk regions as well as the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

On Tuesday, the Amur river, which serves as a natural border with China where it is known as the Heilongiang river, has risen to 676 centimetres.

It is expected to rise by another 30-40 centimetres over the next two days.

"According to estimates, the water levels near Khabarovsk can reach 730-780 centimetres on August 24-28," the Khabarovsk city administration said.

Yury Varakin, head of the situation centre at Russia's state weather service Rosgidromet, said the water levels around Khabarovsk reached a level unseen since regular monitoring began in 1895.

"The highest water level stood at 642 centimetres in 1897," he told AFP.

"In many areas the river spread out over tens of kilometres. The unfavourable situation will remain until the end of the month."

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin discussed ramping up relief efforts along the border with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yang.

Wang and Rogozin agreed at talks in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin to strengthen joint efforts to deal with flooding along the Chinese-Russian border, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Russian military have been deployed to help erect flood defence bunds along the Amur river, with authorities saying they have prepared 10,000 sandbags to use in case the waters breached the defences.

Kremlin envoy Ishayev asked the General Prosecutor's office to look into how the authorities have been handling the emergency.

"Residents in a number of areas say: 'If you started a bit earlier then you'd have saved residential settlements.' And they are right," Ishayev said in televised remarks.

He indicated that some areas did not have proper infrastructure to help protect them against the floods.

Authorities said many in the affected areas had been left without access to money after Russia's biggest bank Sberbank shut its branches and ATMs.

Of the more than 29,000 people who needed to be vaccinated, only 2,000 received shots even though the local authorities had enough vaccines against hepatitis A, diphtheria and typhoid fever, Ishayev's office said.

The defence ministry sent an airlift carrying 20 tonnes of vaccines and medicine to the Far East, adding that it had vaccinated 2,000 servicemen involved in relief efforts.

On Tuesday the Magadan region also declared an emergency due to rising water levels.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said thousands of children will be unable to start school on time as some schools have been destroyed and others turned to shelters.

"What will the children be doing if they do not go to school?" he asked a government meeting.

The disaster comes a year after some 170 people perished in devastating floods that hit the town of Krymsk and its outlying areas in the southern Krasnodar region, with many people dying in their sleep.

Four officials including Krymsk's former mayor are now standing trial on charges of criminal negligence.

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skibboy
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23 AUGUST 2013

Record floods threaten major Russian city

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A flooded street this week in Bolshoi Ussuriysky near Khabarovsk in Russia's Far Eastern Amur region.

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A man sits with his dog on his porch in Krasnaya Rechka near Khabarovsk in Russia's Amur region on Thursday.

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A bus operates on a flooded street, on August 21, 2013 in Khabarovsk.

AFP - Russians in the Far East on Friday scrambled to contain record floods which have affected more than 50,000 people and threatened to paralyse one of the region's biggest cities.

Heavy rains pounding the Far East over the past weeks swelled local rivers, with floodwaters wreaking havoc in Khabarovsk, a city of nearly 600,000 that sits at the confluence of the Amur and Ussury rivers near a Chinese border.

The military were deployed to help hurriedly erect defences against the floodwaters which halted transport in some areas of the city and reached high-rise residential buildings.

Amid fresh concerns that the Russian government was ill-prepared to handle natural disasters, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he would soon personally inspect some of the affected areas.

The government will dispatch 10 ministers headed by powerful deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov to the Far East to oversee relief efforts, government spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told AFP.

On Friday, the level of Amur river, which serves as a natural border with China where it is known as the Heilongjiang river, has risen to 718 centimetres, according to Russian state weather service Rosgidromet.

"The water is still rising, we have not seen the peak yet, and it could climb to 725 centimetres by the end of the day," said Yury Varakin, head of the situation centre at Rosgidromet.

Television footage showed locals walking home along planks to negotiate moody brown waters, junk and discarded footwear floating nearby.

"I went and bought rubber boots, when I came back they were no longer helpful," one man said in televised remarks.

The floods around Khabarovsk are unprecedented since regular monitoring began in 1895, officials said.

The highest water level stood at 642 centimetres in 1897.

There have been no reports of fatalities but officials say the flood waters have so far affected thinly-populated villages and expressed concern that the water might also batter other big cities.

"Right now the floods are reaching big cities which means there could be more serious consequences," the office of the Kremlin's Far Eastern envoy Viktor Ishayev said on Friday.

"The Khabarovsk region has sunk, several districts in Khabarovsk are swimming," Ishayev was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"Komsomolsk-on-Amur has another four to five days to prepare itself for a meeting with big water," he said, referring to a city of 260,000, also on the Amur river.

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