As worst floods of past 120 years hit, about 170,000 people have already been evacuated from Amur, Khabarovsk & Birobidzhan provinces, near Russia’s border with China. Birobidzhan,was once intended to serve as an alternative Soviet homeland for the Jews.
As many as 100,000 people may be evacuated from their homes near Russia’s border with China if the region’s biggest floods for 120 years get worse, Russian media reported on Saturday.
A boy watches his father gets water from a hydrant in Khabarovsk, on the banks of the Amur river, Russia. – Photo: Reuters
The floods, caused by a month of unusually heavy rain, are not expected to start receding until early September, the head of Russia’s hydrometeorology monitoring service told news agency Ria Novosti.
Television footage showed residents rowing boats past half-submerged houses and military vehicles dumping gravel to counter the floodwater, which has already led to the evacuation of about 170,000 people from the Amur, Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan regions.
“The damage is extensive, but the most significant achievement is there have been no casualties … we cannot relax, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address.
Birobidzhan, in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia, on the Chinese border. The region was intended to serve as an alternative homeland for the Jews. – Photo: Wikimedia commons
Water has swamped huge swathes of the countryside with 400,000 hectares of agricultural land submerged, causing potential damage of more than 2 billion roubles ($60 million), Putin’s envoy to the region Viktor Ishaev was quoted as saying.
In 2012, flash floods killed 171 people and damaged more than 4,000 homes in southern Russia’s mountainous Caucasus region.
View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.542293
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