MOSCOW, August 16 (RIA Novosti) – Nearly 28,500 people have been affected by floods in three regions in Russia’s Far East following heavy rains, an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said Friday.
The floods have inundated some "4,380 houses, inhabited by over 27,000 people in the Amur Region and some 959 people in the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region," the spokesman said.
Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova arrived Friday in the Far East to visit the flood-hit areas. She plans to fly over the affected zones by helicopter and visit several temporary accommodation centers set up to help flood victims.
A total of 14,660 people, including over 5,000 children, have been evacuated from the affected areas that include almost 527,500 kilometers of roads and 66 highway bridges and a total of 113 settlements, the spokesman said.
The floods are forecast to peak by the end of the week, Vladimir Stepanov, the head of the ministry's National Crisis Management Center, said earlier this week. According to the Emergencies Ministry, more flood water is expected from neighboring China as a result of a cyclone forming over the Pacific Ocean.
