121 settlements flooded in Far East

More residential areas and houses were flooded in the Amur and Jewish regions and the Khabarovsk Territory over the past 24 hours. This Saturday, 121 settlements are flooded, eight more than on Friday, the Far East regional centre of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said. In 82 settlements, 5,306 houses, homes for more than 32,600 people, are flooded, 668 houses more than the day before. The worst situation remains in the Amur Region, where 94 settlements are in the water. Four settlements were flooded on Friday, but the water left other four. A total of almost 5,000 houses are flooded in the region, 582 more than the previous day. In the Jewish Autonomous Region, 21 settlements are inundated, seven more. The number of houses in the water increased by 80 to 324. In the Khabarovsk Territory, 17 houses are flooded in six residential areas, six houses more than the day before. Meanwhile, the Amur River in Blagoveshchensk remained on the same level. It was 821 cm at 08:00 (02:00 Moscow time) on August 17. The Zeya in the area of the regional centre went down two cm to 816 cm, the Emergencies Ministry’s Amur regional department reported. A government commission headed by Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov on Saturday inspected the Zeiskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant. The plant was working as normal, he said. Schedules are planned for hourly water discharges not only from the Zeiskaya HPP, but also from the Bureiskaya HPP. According to the Emergencies Ministry, the water in the upper part of the Zeiskaya HPP rose 11 cm over the day, and the water inflow increased by 1.200 cub/m a second to 7,500 cub/m a sec. A total of 4,500 cub/m a second are passed through the HPP units. It did not increase over the past day. Emergencies Minister Puchkov and Presidential Envoy to the Far East Federal District Viktor Ishayev have discussed main issues to deal with the flood, the ministry's spokesperson Irina Rossius told Itar-Tass. Special attention was paid to the sanitary situation in the flood-hit areas. The water in-take and drainage systems are under special control, Rossius noted. The minister and the envoy also discussed further steps to eliminate the flood consequences. The minister noted that the situation remained difficult, but it was under control. A government commission on Saturday flew out for the Zeiskaya (Zeya) Hydroelectric Power Plant, where the commission members will inspect the work of hydro units and visit nearby settlements to organize additional work to help the people. The Russian Defence Ministry has set up a field camp for 660 people in an area northwest of Belogorsk to provide help for people affected by the flood and also a filling station, a station to take hot meals and a medical point, the press service of the ministry said. The Defence Ministry has formed an air force group of Mi-8 and Mi-26 helicopters to help the population in remote Far East areas. The military on Friday increased the strength of the force dealing with the flood consequences in the region to 4,500 people. An Il-76 plane of the Emergencies Ministry landed in Blagoveshchensk airport at 07:28 Moscow time on Saturday. The plane delivered humanitarian aid cargoes for the flood-affected people, the ministry's National Crisis Management Centre reported.