MOSCOW, August 21 (Itar-Tass) - Religious organizations have provided about 1.5 million rubles to assist to the flood-hit Far East.
The funding has been allocated by the Russian Orthodox Church, Jewish communities and the laity of Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk and Birobidzhan eparchies.
Rabbi of the Jewish Autonomous Region Eli Riss told Itar-Tass that the region had received 500,000 rubles from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.
Another 300,000 rubles have been sent by the Russian Jewish Congress and the funding has been used to buy foodstuffs. Humanitarian assistance will be sent to Leninsk on the instruction of the governor’s aides. Members of the Jewish community have left for the town of Babstovo to deliver humanitarian aid to its residents - about 100,000 rubles to buy clothes, essentials and foodstuffs.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s Synodal Department for Charity has provided 300,000 rubles to the Khabarovsk and Amur eparchies. “The funding will be used to evacuate children from Bolshoi Ussuriisky Island and to carry them to the Energetik camp. The clergymen led by Metropolitan Ignatyi of Khabarovsk have helped build a dam. They also organized a centre to accommodate over 30 people,” the department’s press service reported.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called for render assistance to believers. Two tons of humanitarian assistance has been provided by the clergy of the Birobidzhan eparchy.
The flood situation in the Amur region stabilizes: there will be no precipitations in the area in the near three days. But the situation remains tense in Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region. The water level reaches 998 centimeters while it reaches 688 centimeters in Khabarovsk. Over 600 houses in 25 settlements have been flooded in the Jewish Autonomous Region, 481 houses, 678 farmyards in Khabarovsk Territory. Torrential rains made the water to rise in three rivers in Krasnoyarsk Territory, Siberia, - Oya, Bolshoi Kebezh and Maly Kebezh.