KHABAROVSK, August 12 (Itar-Tass) — A state of emergency has been introduced in the Solnechny district of the Khabarovsk Territory in connection with flash floods on the Silinka River and flooding of settlements, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s (EMERCOM) main department for the Khabarovsk Territory told Itar-Tass on Friday.
An eight-metre washout formed on the Komsomolsk-on-Amur – Solnechny highway under the pressure of water flow (a channel formed as a result of erosion of a river bend or bank; a hole formed in the body of an earthen dam during its break by a water flow) near a bridge, which blocked motor traffic between the settlements of Gorny and Solnechny.
All dwellers have been evacuated from the House of Veterans in the Gorny settlement that is in the inundation zone, 19 pensioners were taken to a boarding house in the Khurba settlement. Dozens of dwellers of flooded houses in Gorny have also been evacuated.
A task force of the EMERCOM main department for the Khabarovsk Territory led by the department head is working in the Solnechny district. Restoration of destroyed and damaged sections of roads is currently underway, water is being pumped out from the basements of hospitals, apartment houses and other buildings in populated localities.
Weathermen have warned about a sharp water rise due to rainfall in the coming days on the rivers of Urmi, Kur, Tunguska and possible flooding of fields, hay lands, roads, power lines and the settlements of Kukan, Ulika Natsionalnaya, Pobeda, Novokurovka.
In the neighbouring Jewish Autonomous Region, rainfall has caused the rise of water in the Bira River, and bottomlands have been flooded. Round-the-clock emergency posts have been set up in hazardous areas.