32000 affected in heavy floods in Russia
August 17, 2013, 1:35 pm

At a meeting on Saturday, Putin said the damage has been severe [Presidential Press Office]

Over 17,000 people have been evacuated, including 6,100 children, a spokesperson said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that the damage has been severe.

“Large areas of territory have been flooded, dozens of residential areas; communication lines have been damaged, as well as roads, bridges and electricity cables. The damage is very severe. The main thing we were able to do was prevent the loss of human life,” Putin said.

At a meeting on Saturday, Putin instructed the governors of the affected regions to personally handle relief operations.

“No one must be forgotten, and no one must be lost, I mean those people who live in your regions,” he said.

Rescue operations are underway, with 166 relief shelters equipped with food, potable water and medicine supplies, have been set up across the affected regions

Russia’s Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova updated Putin about the measures on Saturday.

The worst affected have been the Amur Region, Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region, a ministry spokesperson said.

An Emergencies Ministry plane delivered 53 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, lifejackets and boats, to the city of Blagoveshchensk in the Amur Region on Saturday for those affected by the flooding, the ministry said.

“We will solve the issue of rehousing those whose homes cannot be rebuilt to other places or residential areas,” Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.

Rainfall and flood levels are expected to decrease after 20^th August, officials from environmental monitoring agencies said.

Source: Agencies