Floodwaters in Russian Far East to recede in full by mid-October

Floodwaters will fully recede in the areas of the Russian Far East affected by the August and September floods in mid-October, the Far-Eastern Hydrometeorology Center said Tuesday. It said that water levels were subsiding along the entire length of the Amur River -- the main mischief-maker in the course hitherto unseen floods. Since Monday morning, the water level in Khabarovsk, the major city of the Far East, went another 5 cm down to the mark of 4.45 meters. In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the center of aircraft manufacturing in region, the water subsided by another 16 cm to 6.92 meters. Weather surveyors said an intensive lowering of river warters could be seen everywhere from the Jewish autonomous region on the border with China through to the mouth of the Amur in the southernmost part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Tuesday morning, as total of 2,063 residential houses in 48 urban areas and rural localities remained partly flooded. Water was still staying at 2,452 private kitchen gardens. Inundation was keeping in its grips two automobile bridges and 16 sections of roads with a total length of 27.5 km. As many as 7,606 people, including 1,511 children were still evacuated from their homes and staying at provisional centers for an "extended sojourn of people". Teams of medics and rescue workers from the Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense /EMERCOM/ were engaged in the sanitation of the land areas that had re-emerged from the water. All in all, almost 10,000 men and 1,798 vehicles and other 'units of technology' were engaged in the operation to eliminate the aftermaths of floods in the Khabarovsk territory.