Damages to the agrarian sector in the flooded Far East have made ten billion rubles, as about half of harvest was destroyed in the flood, the Kommersant daily reported. The Agriculture Ministry has made public these figures. The damages to people, who lost their housing, are not calculated, as the flood is not over yet.
To support the agrarian sector Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a resolution to allocate three billion rubles to develop plant growing and eight billion rubles to cattle breeding (the sum of allocations that will be made to the Far East is not specified) to all regional agrarian and industrial complexes.
The Kommersant daily reported that torrential rains in the upper reaches of Amur River triggered a devastating flood at the end of July. According to the weather reports of the Russian weather forecasting service, the peak of the flood in Amur Region has already passed, but the water does not recede from the settlements yet. According to the reports of the Ministry of Emergency Situations on August 23, the number of people affected in the flood exceeds 50,000 in the Far East.
According to the current weather forecasts, the water level on Amur River may surpass a critical level of eight meters in a few days, and then not only the villages, but also the city of Khabarovsk will be flooded.
On Sunday, Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov gave the orders to prepare for a flood in several more cities. From August 30 through September 3 the Russian weather forecasting service expects a water rise in Amur River in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (400 kilometers away from Khabarovsk) and in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur (800 kilometers away from Khabarovsk) on September 9-12.
President Vladimir Putin will go on a working trip to inspect the Far East next week.
“The actions of the authorities during the flood in the Far East are a rare case, when even the opposition does not scold the Kremlin,” the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper reported.