Russia evacuates 2,000 following floods in the east
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Rescuers use inflatable boats to evacuate residents in Ussuriysk, Russia, in this still image taken from video released on Aug 12, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW - Russia has evacuated more than 2,000 people from flooded areas in the eastern part of the country, emergency officials said on Sunday, after Tropical Storm Khanun
“More than 2,000 people, including 405 children, have been evacuated in Primorye,” the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram.
The ministry said nearly 5,000 buildings had been flooded in the Primorye region, which borders China and North Korea.
Russia’s Tass news agency quoted the ministry as saying the number of flooded homes stood at 4,368, while 5,654 adjoining plots and seven apartment buildings also were flooded. It said 28 settlements remained cut off.
It said most of the affected homes were in the cities of Ussuriysk and Spassk-Dalny, and in the Oktyabrsky municipal district, in Primorye, where the port of Vladivostok is the administrative centre.
The ministry said on Telegram that a task force would “coordinate the work to eliminate the consequences of the flood”.
It said its aircraft delivered humanitarian aid and Mi-8 helicopters helped transfer rescuers to the site.
It added there were no reports of casualties and that it had avoided more serious damage by sending units in early. Rescuers had set up 13 temporary accommodation centres in the region, the ministry said.
Tass said the flood in Ussuriysk, the second-largest city in Primorye, was the worst and biggest in a decade and that it had affected between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of its territory.
Khanun battered Japan last week
The storm also forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of scouts from their World Scout Jamboree campsite in South Korea. AFP, REUTERS
