Calamitous toll of flooding hits homes of almost 100,000 people with the worst still to come

Almost 10,000 residential blocks have been hit, and nearly 14,000 private houses in rural areas.  Some 374 'social facilities' have been deluged, while 611 kilometres of highway are underwater. Close to 600,000 hectares of arable farmland is wiped out prompting emergency food imports from other regions. 

The cost of repairs will run into many billions of roubles with the authorities also planning how to build new hydro plants to control water flows in future to save the Russian Far East from such devastating floods. 

The region has experienced in recent days the worst such event in recorded history. 

Despite this, Russia has not suffered the tragic fatalities that China has experienced across the border. And interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said on Tuesday:'Looting has been prevented at the moment'. 

He stressed: 'All measures to ensure law and order and safety of citizens, to provide the needed assistance to them, as well as to ensure safekeeping of the property of the people who were evacuated from the calamity zone, are being taken'.

President Vladimir Putin said in Siberia that it was vital to restore the effective working of hydro facilities when the crisis is over and the water subsides. 

'Energy facilities should be restored within the shortest timeframe. I'm drawing everybody's attention to it,' he said at a conference on the development of electric power generation in Siberia and the Far East.

'It is clear that a range of systemic measures and solutions has to be worked out and implemented. These measures envision a new system to regulate the water resources of the whole region'.

The involved construction of new hydroelectric power plants able to accumulate great masses of water alongside protection measures, elimination of the aftermath of accidents and assistance to victims. Worst hit are the Khabarovsk, Amur and Jewish Autonomous regions. 

The city of Khabarovsk remains under threat of flooding and possible mass evacuation as water continues to rise following massive rainfall. 

Premier Dmitry Medvedev said: 'It is necessary to consider a possibility of delivering potatoes, vegetables, grain, fodder and seeds from the other regions so as to prevent food shortages and price outrage'.