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Around 100 homes in western parts of Ukraine remain underwater following heavy rains that struck the region at the end of July, the country's Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday.

According to the Health Ministry, 38 people are either dead or missing since July 27 in the worst storms to hit the region in a century. Over 40,000 homes were flooded and thousands of people evacuated as bridges, roads and infrastructure were swept away.

"The situation on August 9 is that six regions in western Ukraine along with six settlements and 92 homes remain flooded," the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared a three-month state of emergency in late July and parliament has allocated some $1.2 billion for disaster relief operations. The damage has been estimated at $1.26 billion

Ukraine has already received humanitarian aid from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Czech Republic and Hungary. Aid from NATO, the European Union, the United Nations, Japan, Spain, the U.S. and Estonia is expected to arrive in the country in the near future.

Ukrainian environmentalists say uncontrolled logging in the Carpathian Mountains could have exacerbated the effects of the floods.

It is widely believed that one of the main reasons for the severe flooding seen in Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova in recent years is that deforested regions are less able to absorb water. In addition, nothing prevents water from rushing down the Carpathian Mountains in the event of heavy rains.