Flood situation in Komsomolsk on Amur difficult but controlled

The water level in the Amur River near the Russian Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur has dropped by seven centimeters in the past 24 hours to reach 846 centimetres as of 08:00 a.m. local time. Specialists expected a further decrease of 20-30 centimetres in the next two days. The situation in Komsomolsk-on-Amur is difficult but it is under control, a spokesman for the Khabarovsk department of the Russian emergencies ministry said on Sunday. As of now, as many as 1,155 residential houses with a population of more than 13,500, including 2,300 children, stay flooded. As many as 17 multi-apartment houses and 492 private households have no electricity supplies. Slightly more that 1,000 people are staying at temporary accommodation centres. Rescuers are patrolling flooded settlements. They deliver foodstuffs and articles of prime necessity to those who opted to stay at their flooded homes. Rescuers also feed unattended domestic animals. The water level near Khabarovsk subsided to 535 centimetres, or minus 17 centimetres over the past day, while in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur the water level raised by five centimeters to reach the 254-centimetre mark. The critical level is three metres. Now that the flood situation in the region is stabilizing, the Russian emergencies ministry has reduced its presence here. Thus, 105 rescuers were sent back to their home cities of Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk. All of them were awarded ministry’s medals for their selfless efforts.