More than 5,000 troops will arrive in Russia’s southern city of Krymsk on Monday to assist with a clean-up operation following deadly flash floods that hit the area earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
The floods, which swept through three cities in southern Russia, including Krymsk, on July 7, killed 171 people and deluged 7,000 homes, causing massive damage to the gas, electricity and water supplies and road and rail links. Most of the deaths occurred in Krymsk.
Putin visited the city on Sunday, for the second time since the disaster. He ordered the city government to increase compensations to those who lost their property as a result of the floods from the current 150,000 rubles ($4,600) to 160,000 per person.
Putin also ordered local officials to improve the system of humanitarian aid distribution in the city after residents complained to him about problems with accessing the aid such as long queues and a lack of distribution centers.
The July 7 disaster, caused by torrential rains flooding the mountain rivers, caught many locals unaware, especially in Krymsk, which is home to some 57,000 people.
Many residents claimed they never received any storm warning. District authorities said they launched a news ticker on local television and sent out mass text messages, but the power was out before the flood, shutting off TV sets, and the text messages mostly arrived too late and in truncated form.