Richard Davies Floodlist Mon, 09 Aug 2021 13:12 UTC
Regions of Russia's Far East are facing yet another wave of flooding after days of heavy rain caused river levels to rise.
Yevgeny Zinichev, head of Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations EMERCOM, visited areas of Amur and Jewish Autonomous Oblasts (regions) on 07 August 2021. He described the situation as "extremely difficult".
In Amur Region, the Amur, Zeya, Selemdzha, Tom and Zavitaya rivers are all flowing above flood stage. As of 09 August, 182 homes were flooded, including 67 in the district of Belogorsky, 12 in Blagoveshchensk, 25 in Seryshevsky and 19 in Selemdzhinsky. Over 50 people have evacuated their homes and were staying in 3 temporary shelters. Furthermore, 1 bridge is damaged and 40 sections of highways are flooded leaving 28 settlements cut off by road.
Areas of Amur Oblast were struck by an earlier wave of flooding in June this year.
The Minister also visited areas of Jewish Autonomous Oblast, where 17 settlement are seeing flooding from the Amur River, mostly in Obluchensky and Leninsky districts. As of 09 August, 3 roads, over 1,500 hectares of farmland and 27 household plots were flooded.
In Khabarovsk Krai, some minor flooding from the Amur was reported in the city of Khabarovsk and other areas. Flooding affected parts of the territory in May this year after snow melt and ice jams caused the Amur river to flood.
Rivers are also rising in Zabaykalsky Krai, including the Argun and Ingoda. Flooding struck in the territory in late July this year.
More than 24,000 people in Russia's Far East have been affected by floods, the press service of the office of the Russian presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal District said on Tuesday.
"Four Far Eastern regions, namely the Amur region, the TransBaikal and Khabarovsk Territories, and the Jewish autonomous region, were affected by the flood. <...> More than 24,000 people have been affected by the flood, more than 1,000 living premises were recognized as unfit for living and 1,871 premises require repairs," it said.
The flood affected 145 settlements, 56 municipalities, more than 3,000 private houses, 8,900 land plots, and 160 social facilities. More than 950 kilometers of motorways, 102 bridges, seven railway sections were damaged.
According to the press service, more than 80% of those affected by the flooding have received a lump-sum allowance of 10,000 rubles (135 US dollars) from the federal budget. Those who have lost daily necessity property will receive a sum of 50,000 rubles (676 US dollars) and a sum of 100,000 rubles (1,352 US dollars) will be paid to those who lost their housing.
Comment: Update: TASS reports on August 10: See also: Thousands evacuate floods in far east of Russia