KHABAROVSK, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Some 850 residents in the partly flooded city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East have refused to leave their homes, despite the Amur River already passing the critical level by one meter (three feet) and rising further, municipal authorities said on Thursday.
The regional Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service said earlier the water level of the Amur River in the city was 696 centimeters (22.8 feet) by Wednesday noon. According to the service’s forecasts, the level will rise to 730-780 centimeters (24-26 feet) over the weekend.
“The flood zone covered two city streets with 11 residential apartment buildings, where up to 850 people live,” the city authorities said in a statement, adding that although rescuers had urged people to evacuate, hundreds had refused to leave their houses.
Nearly 30,000 people have been affected by floods in three regions in Russia’s Far East - the Amur Region, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region - following heavy rains that caused the Amur River to burst its banks. Some 20,000 people have been evacuated.
Over 40,000 people in the Far East are currently involved in relief and rescue operations, including 10,000 from the Emergencies Ministry and over 4,000 military servicemen, said Vladimir Stepanov, the head of the Emergencies Ministry’s crisis situation management center.
“Two more Emergencies Ministry aircraft carrying rescuers and humanitarian aid will take off on Thursday night from Moscow to the Khabarovsk Territory, where the situation is very acute,” Stepanov said.
Local meteorologists said Wednesday that such water levels in the Amur River had never previously been seen in the 116-year history of weather observations in the area.
Current forecasts predict the level of the Amur River will only start to subside in late September or early October.
