Causes of the Amur flood over the past 5 years. Causes of flooding in the Far East
Premier Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance to investigate the issue of providing assistance from federal budget regions of the Far East affected by flooding. Assistance in this should be provided by the authorities of the affected regions.
Flooding in the Far East in 2013 caused huge damage agriculture region, made it difficult to supply residents with essential goods, deprived many of their homes and property. Flood victims should receive compensation for damage not only from the regional, but also from the federal budget. Accurate data on flood damage will be provided to the government by 20 September.
Recall that the level of the Amur near Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur on September 2, 2013 exceeded 8 meters. However, there will be no mass evacuation in Khabarovsk due to the rise of the Amur.
What is the cause of flooding in the Far East?
Earlier it was reported that the flood in the Far East in 2013 had simple reasons - monsoon rains that overflowed the rivers of the region and caused a rise in the water level in the Amur. However, as it turned out, the real causes of flooding in the Far East are more complicated. Experts believe heavy rains are only part of the problem. Contributed to the flood ... the weather last fall. In the autumn of 2012 there was a lot of rain, and the rivers went into winter with high level water.
Scientists believe that global climate change also played a role. In particular, the director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, Roman Vilfand, believes that the cause of the flood in the Far East is the anomalous circulation of air masses over the Asian territory of Russia: over China, the air was very warm and humid for a long time, and over Yakutia, on the contrary, cool and dry. The temperature difference caused two months of continuous rains over the territory of the Far East.
Flooding in the Far East: animated rain forecast for the next 36 hours.
However, residents of the affected regions also tend to blame the operation of the Zeya and Bureyskaya HPPs for the flooding of the Far East, citing the actions of RusHydro as the real causes of the flood. According to some observers, the reservoir was filled above the norm, which led to the flood. However, RusHydro refutes this opinion, reporting that "every step of hydropower in the operation of stations is very strictly regulated and controlled by the state: the modes of filling and drawdown of reservoirs, the passage of floods at HPPs are established by the Ministry of natural resources represented by the Federal Agency water resources(Rosvodresursy)". According to the official website of the Zeya HPP, the dams of the Zeya and Bureyskaya HPPs contain up to 40 percent of the flood and supply the regions of the Far East with electricity.
Flooding in the Far East: last news September 2, 2013. Photo of water discharge from the Zeya hydroelectric power station.
Flooding in the Far East: video of the idle discharge of water from the Zeya hydroelectric power station on August 26, 2013. From the HPS official website
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Alexander Gelfan (Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
The summer flood of 2013, which engulfed vast areas of the Russian Far East and northeast China, became one of the largest natural disasters of the last decade in terms of duration, area of distribution, number of victims and economic damage. What caused this extraordinary phenomenon? Have hydraulic structures reduced or, conversely, increased the scale of flooding? And how to avoid the severe consequences of such disasters in the future?
Flooding on the Amur, August 2013.
The Amur basin covers vast territories.
Average monthly water consumption of the Amur River near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Source: Rosgid-romet. The river has the highest water content in the summer-autumn season of monsoon rains.
Maximum water levels on the floodplain and the duration of its flooding during the flood of 2013 (according to the Center for the Register and Cadastre of the Federal Water Resources).
Satellite images of the section of the river near the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur (top - August 17, 2012; bottom - September 8, 2013) show the size of the flooded areas. Source: NASA (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82020).
Science and life // Illustrations
Water inflow to the Zeya reservoir (blue line) and discharge from it (red line). Source: JSC RusHydro. The higher the blue line in relation to the red one, the greater the amount of flood is retained in the reservoir.
Map of the study area showing the boundaries of reservoir catchment areas (black lines) and hydrological stations (black triangles). The data from these posts were used in calculations of river runoff in the middle Amur basin.
The devastating flood, which lasted more than two months, caused a rain flood that formed in July-September 2013 on the rivers of the Amur basin. In the Amur, Jewish Autonomous Regions, Khabarovsk Territory, dozens of settlements were flooded. More than 12,000 houses have been destroyed and more than 2,000 of them cannot be restored. According to official data, as of mid-October 2013 total number more than 168 thousand people were affected. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from the disaster zone. The total economic damage at the end of October 2013, according to official data, amounted to 40 billion rubles, but there is reason to believe that this amount will increase as more is clarified. It would not be an exaggeration to say that for our country this flood was a catastrophe on a national scale.
Even more devastating were the consequences of the flood for the Chinese part of the Amur basin, which is associated with a greater number and density of the population living there. For example, only in Harbin, located on the main tributary of the Amur - the Sungari River, there are much more people than in the entire Russian part of the Amur basin. As a result, more than 200 people were killed or missing in Heilongjiang Province (the Black Dragon River - the Chinese name for the Amur River), more than 800,000 people were evacuated, and the total damage from the flood is estimated at 15 billion US dollars.
What is the Amur River and what are the climatic features of this region?
Amur basin, monsoons and floods
Cupid is one of largest rivers peace. Its length from the sources of the Argun to the confluence with the Amur Estuary - the northern part of the Tatar Strait, connecting the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, is 4440 km. The Amur basin with an area of 1856 thousand km2 is the fourth largest among the rivers of Russia (after the Yenisei, Ob and Lena) and the tenth among the rivers of the world. About 53% of the basin area falls on the territory of Russia, 45% - China and about 2% - Mongolia.
It is customary to single out the upper Amur (from the confluence of the Shilka and Argun to Blagoveshchensk, 883 km), the middle Amur (from Blagoveshchensk to Khabarovsk, 975 km) and the lower Amur (from Khabarovsk to the mouth, 966 km). The main tributaries of the Amur are the rivers Zeya, Bureya, Bidzhan, Bira, Tunguska, Goryun, Amgun (left tributaries), Sungari, Ussuri, Anyui, Gur (right tributaries).
The Amur basin is a flood-prone region, which is associated with a monsoon climate, the main feature of which is a sharp predominance of precipitation in summer and its almost complete absence in winter. Maximum amount summer precipitation falls in July (an average of 150 mm per month) in the middle Amur basin. Despite the low amount of winter precipitation, the height of snow cover on the upper and lower Amur can reach 150 cm.
In the lower reaches, in the region of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, more than 300 km³ of water passes through the riverbed per year. The river has the highest water content in the summer-autumn season of monsoon rains, when more than 75% of the total annual flow passes.
AT different parts basin, summer rain floods may not coincide in time, which is why the flood season sometimes lasts up to six months. On average, during the summer and early autumn, from three to eight large rain floods pass along the river. The flow of the river is very uneven over the years. Dry years, in which navigation is even difficult, alternate with years of powerful water rises. Khabarovsk, for example, has the highest water flow in the river, recorded in August 2013, and the lowest, measured in March 1922, differ by more than 300 times.
The first information about the Amur floods is found in the petition of the peasants of the Pokrovskaya settlement (upper Amur), dated 1682. The first description of a high flood refers to 1861 - three years after the conclusion of the Aigun Treaty with China, which secured the left bank of the Amur for Russia. After another 11 years, another outstanding flood occurred.
On average, in this flood-prone region, significant floods occur every three years, and major floods occur every 20 years. During the passage of the highest floods, the water depth on the floodplain reaches several meters, the width of the flood zone is 15-20 km, and its duration is 5-6 weeks. During the period of instrumental observations, such large-scale floods were in August-September 1897, 1951 and 1959, in July-August 1911, 1932, 1953 and 2007.
But the flood of July-September 2013 was unprecedented even against the backdrop of these outstanding natural disasters.
Causes of the disaster
The 2013 Amur flood was formed as a result of an extremely rare combination of adverse hydrometeorological conditions. First of all, this is a unique synoptic situation that has developed over the territories of the Russian Far East and northeast China during the developed phase of the summer monsoon. For two months, the Amur basin was continuously “attacked” by deep, moisture-saturated cyclones, whose departure from the continent towards the Sea of Okhotsk was prevented by a blocking (almost immovable) area high pressure over the Pacific Northwest.
These processes led to unprecedented rains in the Amur basin - in terms of volume, duration and distribution area. In many parts of the basin, the amount of precipitation in July-August 2013 exceeded the annual norm.
Similar synoptic processes more than once became the main cause of catastrophic floods. A striking recent example is the formation of a giant high-pressure blocking area that brought heat waves to European Russia, Kazakhstan and northwest China in the summer of 2010, which caused unusually heavy and prolonged rains and, as a result, catastrophic flooding on the Indus River, covering an area of almost 1 million km 2 and claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people in Pakistan.
There is reason to believe that the occurrence of such anomalous synoptic phenomena is associated with climate change, which is accompanied by an increase in the number and power of cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere, an increase in periods of intense precipitation and, at the same time, an increase in the scale of droughts.
Another circumstance that led to the flooding on the Amur is the high saturation of the soil with water over vast areas of river basins by the beginning of the flood season. The reasons for this were the heavy snow cover that formed in the winter of 2012/13 and the late spring, during which a significant part of the melt water was absorbed by the soil. Due to the critical decrease in the absorbency of the soil, the natural regulating capacity of the river basins has sharply decreased. As a result, huge masses of rainwater that fell on the slopes of the river valleys flowed into the river network, which led to the simultaneous formation of flood waves and a sharp increase in the flow and water levels in the rivers of the basin. In many parts of the river network, the water level exceeded the values recorded during instrumental observations in this region. Thus, the maximum water level in Khabarovsk was 808 cm (historical maximum in 1897 - 642 cm), in Komsomolsk-on-Amur - 910 cm (historical maximum in 1959 - 701 cm) (see table). Throughout the middle and lower Amur, the floodplain was flooded to a depth of 3-5 m for three months. And the maximum water flow at the peak of the flood in the Khabarovsk alignment (46,000 m³/s) almost doubled the average long-term maximum flow in this river alignment.
Here we can draw an analogy with the catastrophic flood in the Mississippi basin in the summer of 1993, when 50 people died and economic damage was estimated at more than $ 15 billion. An increase in the height of the rain flood that formed this flood, also in to a large extent contributed to high soil moisture over a vast area. The dampening was caused by extremely heavy rains in the autumn of 1992 and the anomalously snowy winter of 1992/93 that followed.
Rescue reservoirs and Amur lessons
The reservoirs of the Zeya and Bureya reservoirs are used to regulate runoff, including floods, in the middle Amur basin.
By the beginning of the 2013 flood season, both reservoirs were released from part of the water (drawn out) to the level prescribed by the rules. By mid-July, the inflow of water into the Zeya reservoir increased almost 5 times - from 1200 to 5500 m³/s, while the discharge flow (water flow below the dam) did not exceed 1200 m³/s. By the end of July, the inflow of water into the reservoir increased even more - to almost 12,000 m³ / s. However, discharge discharges increased only to 3500-5000 m³/s, that is, even at the peak of the flood, the Zeya reservoir accumulated most of its volume.
The Bureya reservoir also managed to accumulate a significant part of the runoff, especially at the beginning of the flood season, when the water inflow into the reservoir reached 3000 m³/s, and the discharge did not exceed 1300 m³/s. From mid-July to the end of August, the Bureya reservoir accumulated about 5 km³, with a total inflow over this period of 10.5 km³.
In total, according to the estimates of JSC RusHydro, the Zeya and Bureyskoye reservoirs accumulated more than 50% of the water that entered them during the 2013 flood.
The reservoirs affected the height of the flood only in the sections of the Amur immediately after the confluence of the Zeya and Bureya rivers. In vast areas of the basin below the confluence of these rivers, continuous rains continued to fall from day to day. Hundreds of small rivers and the largest tributaries - the Sungari and Ussuri rivers - carried huge masses of water to the Amur, which caused flooding of sections of the lower Amur unprecedented in height and duration.
Does this mean that new reservoirs are needed in the Amur basin? Is the reconstruction of existing hydraulic structures and the creation of new protective dams near settlements? Is it necessary to manage the processes of reshaping the channel? How to assess which protective and preventive measures will be effective in the long term?
To answer these questions, one must have an idea of the danger of a recurrence of such natural disasters. About what natural processes can lead to an increase in the frequency and scale of catastrophic floods, as human economic activity can affect the risk of their occurrence. Finally, it is necessary to understand how accurately and for how long it is possible to predict the development of such natural disasters.
In recent decades, a new generation of flood hazard assessment and forecasting methods based on mathematical computer models has been created. Such models make it possible to reproduce the features of natural disasters that have occurred and calculate possible scenarios for the development of future ones. In economically developed countries, they are becoming the main tool for making decisions on flood protection measures.
But foreign computer models for most of the territory of Russia cannot work effectively. The problem is that the processes of river runoff formation described by these models differ significantly from the processes typical for Russia with its climatic features. But the main problem is the lack of hydrometeorological measurement data for most Russian river basins, without which any mathematical models are useless. This issue has become especially acute since the 1990s, when the number of measuring stations and posts was sharply reduced in our country.
Creation of models for the main river systems of Russia, reproducing the features of runoff formation and oriented to the available measurement data, is a priority task. This work should be supported by the restoration and expansion of the network of hydrometeorological observations, the introduction of new technologies for collecting information.
In the meantime, specialists will have to reproduce with the help of mathematical models the picture of the formation in the Amur basin of the catastrophic flood of 2013, its distribution along the river channels. On the basis of these models, it is planned to create technologies for assessing the risk of future floods, forecasting flood flow for flood-prone areas of the Amur basin.
Employees of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences were among the first in the country to start this work and have already developed the corresponding physical and mathematical models. Numerical experiments carried out on their basis showed, for example, that the Zeya reservoir made a significant contribution to mitigating the consequences of flooding. Thanks to the Zeya HPP, water consumption at the peak of the flood in early August 2013 in the Blagoveshchensk region was reduced by more than 7,500 m³/s. Without the regulatory role of the Zeya reservoir, water levels in Blagoveshchensk and downstream of the Amur would be 0.5-1.5 m higher.
Catastrophic floods that have occurred in economically developed countries have always stimulated long-term investment in Scientific research these natural phenomena, in the creation of new institutes and laboratories. National academic communities were involved in the development of flood protection programs. This was the case after the catastrophic flood of 1953 in the Netherlands, which claimed the lives of almost 2,000 people. At that time, one of the most effective systems of protective hydraulic structures in the world was created in this country, and institutions that later became leading institutions arose. scientific schools. This was the case after the aforementioned 1993 flood on the Mississippi River, when the system of hydrological forecasts in the United States was radically modernized. This was the case after the catastrophic floods of the mid-2000s in Europe, when the European Parliament obliged the EU countries to develop and agree by 2018 national programs flood risk assessments. It is extremely important that the natural disaster in the Amur Basin not only contribute to flood protection measures in this region, but also give impetus to state support for the creation of a science-based strategic flood protection program for all flood-prone regions of Russia.
Khabarovsk Territory, August, 2013. Photo: AmurMedia archive.
Deep August 2013: Chronicle of the flood in the Khabarovsk Territory from "A" to "Z"
Four years after the rampage of the water element, AmurMedia news agency recalls the key moments of that period (MULTIMEDIA)
Four years after the terrible incident on the Amur River, the “big water” is now, perhaps, reminiscent of the marks from the arrived water on garages and buildings, as well as information periodically flashing in the news about the construction of housing for flood victims. A chronicle from "A" to "Z" of the largest flood in the Far East is offered to its readers by AmurMedia Information Agency.
Water marks on the buildings are reminiscent of the flood that occurred in 2013. Own photo from the scene. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
In June 2013, we monitored the hydrological situation on the Amur and waited for consoling weather forecasts for the end of summer regarding the level of the river. In the following years, the elements had mercy, and that flood, which destroyed the fate of many people in its path and entered the Russian Book of Records as the largest flood in the country, we hope will not happen again. We will once again go over this difficult page in the history of the Far East and Russia, and along the way we will try to build a general picture of what happened a year ago in the Khabarovsk Territory off the banks of the Amur.
The first swallows
A sharp rise in water in the rivers Lastochka and Ruzhinka occurred near the federal highway A-370 "Ussuri" Khabarovsk-Vladivostok at kilometers 282 and 402 as a result of the last cyclone and heavy rains on the night of July 25-26, 2013. It was one of the first alarm calls warning about the beginning of the rampant elements.
On July 29, an MI-8 helicopter of the Far Eastern Regional Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry took off from Khabarovsk to provide assistance to residents of the village of Ivanovka, Amur Region. In the village, 155 residential buildings and four social significant object. In total, 106 people were evacuated from the village of Ivanovka, including 62 children.
On July 30, specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported a possible increase in the water level in the Amur to 5-5.5 meters and possible flooding of hayfields, pastures, summer cottages located on the left bank of the Amur near the city of Khabarovsk and the village of Ussuriysky.
And the very next day, rescuers announced that the flood wave had reached the Khabarovsk Territory. The weather conditions also contributed to this - it was constantly raining all over the region. The weather that summer was characterized by high humidity, stuffiness, frequent rains almost throughout the region, for which weather forecasters nicknamed it.
The weather in the summer of 2013 in the Khabarovsk Territory was nicknamed "tropical depression" by weather forecasters. Photo from the scene is own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
"We do not predict a stable period of good weather without precipitation, the region will continue to be exhausted by weather with high humidity, rain and stuffiness in the air, which is associated with high daytime temperatures and warm nights," Galina Bryntseva, a specialist at the Far Eastern UGMS, said at the time. .
deep august
On August 1, water was discharged at the Zeya hydroelectric power station, which also affected the amount of water in the river. The Hubhydrometeorological Center said that the water level in the river would rise.
On August 5, weather forecasters reported that Khabarovsk would go under water like it had never left. Then the words of experts were regarded very critically, but later they turned out to be pure truth.
The water was rising, but the Khabarovsk residents did not lose optimism, The photo from the scene was our own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
The left bank is flooded at 4.5-5 meters, that is, now half of the islands are flooded, including summer cottages. Next week, presumably, Amur will be at the level of 6 meters. Last time such a high limit was recorded in 1984 at around 6.2 meters, this year Amur can beat this record, - said Galina Bryntseva.
By August 8, dozens of settlements had already been flooded in the region, people were evacuated to temporary residences, and the police prepared to stop looting attempts in abandoned territories in places emergency. Meanwhile, the water level in the Amur grew by 13-15 cm per day. Changes in the water level in just 2-3 days were visible to the naked eye, the water was rising so rapidly. The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Vladimir Puchkov said that the situation in the Khabarovsk Territory, caused by heavy rains, is under control.
At the same time, the danger of flooding arose in Chinese cities. The Heilongjiang provincial government issued a yellow (raised) warning signal in Fuyuan due to the upcoming flooding. According to Chinese media reports, such a flood, which the city will have to endure from day to day, has not been about 20-30 years.
On August 12, an emergency regime was introduced in Khabarovsk - Mayor Alexander Sokolov signed a corresponding decree. . More than 3,000 suburban areas were flooded in the city. All the stairs leading from the embankment to the beach were flooded, and the water continued to rise. In parallel to the reflection of the elements, the administration of Komsomolsk-on-Amur began preparations. The crest of the flood was expected to reach the city of Yunost by August 20-22.
Catastrophic flood in the Khabarovsk Territory: from "A" to "Z", Own photo from the scene. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
Almost daily, the Bureiskaya and Zeya hydroelectric power stations emitted water. On August 16, residents of the Khabarovsk Territory who suffered from the flood began to receive monetary compensation - 10,000 rubles each.
The washed-out Khabarovsk-Komsomolsk-on-Amur highway held hundreds of people in its captivity for almost two weeks. Photo from the scene is our own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
Many also became prisoners of the flood. Cats and dogs lived for weeks on tiny patches of land in their backyards.
Many animals abandoned to the mercy of fate became prisoners of the flood, Photo from the place of the event is own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
In Khabarovsk alone, according to the mayor of the city Alexander Sokolov,.
The flood hid the central embankment under a one and a half meter layer of dirty, foul-smelling water from the Amur, Own photo from the scene. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
A huge part of the coastline along the city was flooded, as well as the city park.
A huge part of the coastline along the city turned out to be flooded, as well as the city park, Photo from the event site own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
The sports complex gradually filled with water, the toilets and stands of the stadium were flooded. Photo from the scene is own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
The sports complex gradually filled with water, the stadium's toilets and stands were flooded, and many seats were broken and torn out by hooligans.
The Lenin Stadium in Khabarovsk was completely disfigured by the flood, Photo from the place of the event is own. Author of the photo: Roman Fedorov, corr. IA AmurMedia
When the Amur is overflowing, in the Far East they say "The black dragon has woken up." "Dragon" Cupid was nicknamed for a cool temper. But the shape of the river really resembles an unknown creature. The monster's tail lies off the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The body extends from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to northern China. The Zeya, Bureya and Ussuri rivers are the paws of the dragon, and the head is the Sungari River, a tributary of the Amur. The length of the river network, if we take the "torso" with "paws", reaches five and a half thousand kilometers (http://m.rg.ru/, 2013).
The inhabitants of the Far East have been fighting this monster for more than one century. In 1681, the first Russian settlers complained to the tsar that they were left without a harvest - all the fields were flooded with water.
1897 The spill of the Amur tributaries Zeya and Bureya put out of action the recently discovered Transbaikal railway. 200 years later, the Amur "dragon" raged again: it tore out the banks, flooded arable land and hayfields, and washed away villages.
In the twentieth century, there was a hope to finally tame the Amur monster. The banks of the river were strengthened with embankments, dams and dams.
But the floods continue. "Big Water" came in the 50s. The catastrophe was repeated in the 70s and in the 2000s. Each time the waters of the river rose higher and higher. The 2013 flood broke all records. in Khabarovsk, where critical point- 600 centimeters, the water rose by 802 centimeters. In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the critical mark is 650 centimeters, the water level exceeded 912 centimeters. It is impossible to tame the "black dragon".
Major floods in the Far East by 2025 may begin to repeat twice as often as now, according to the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
The last major flood occurred on the Amur at the end of July 2013, as a result, a severe flood swept the Amur and Jewish Autonomous Regions, Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye. 183 thousand people suffered from the elements.
“The frequency of floods caused by heavy rains in the Far East will increase one and a half to two times, from an average of one flood every 10-15 years in the last quarter of the 20th century to one flood every 7-12 years in the first quarter of the 21st century,” it says. in the department's forecast for 2014.
In the Ministry of Emergency Situations, this is associated with climate change. “Due to the increase in liquid precipitation in winter on the European territory of Russia, by the middle of the 21st century, a decrease in snow accumulation is predicted, while in Western and Eastern Siberia there will be an increased accumulation of snow mass and its intensive spring melting (which, in turn, will affect intensity of floods),” the agency warns. Previously, the ministry predicted an increase in the number of natural hazards in the regions of Russia by 2050, primarily thunderstorms and showers (Zhabin, 2010).
Despite the cessation of rains, the unfavorable hydrological situation persists in the Amur Region. Zeya and Bureya hydroelectric power stations continue to discharge water from reservoirs. The rivers of the Zeya basin are flooded. As of August 20, 15 municipalities of the region remain flooded.
These are Zeya, Mazanovsky, Seryshevsky, Blagoveshchensky, Belogorsky, Ivanovsky, Svobodnensky, Konstantinovsky, Mikhailovsky, Arkharinsky, Tambovsky, Shimanovsky districts and the urban districts of Blagoveshchensk, Svobodny, Belogorsk. The flood affected 91 settlements, in 78 of which 5,471 residential buildings were flooded with a population of 29,997 people, including 8,055 children. Water occupied 8,121 personal plots. 188 sections of local roads with a total length of 462 kilometers and 56 automobile bridges of local importance were damaged.
People living in areas of possible flooding continue to be notified of the impending danger. Operational groups make door-to-door rounds, handing out leaflets that define the procedure for actions in a dangerous situation. With a sharp increase in water levels in settlements electric sirens and loudspeakers installed on special vehicles will work. Residents will also be notified of the alarm by phone and TV.
Since the beginning of the flood, 16,128 people have been evacuated in the region, including 5,836 children. Including 10,692 people were taken out of flooded houses, 2,880 of which were children.
93 temporary accommodation centers have been deployed in flooding areas, 1,442 people, including 637 children, have been resettled in 24 of them. During the day, 185 people, including 113 children, were accommodated in TAPs. Food and medical care for people is established.
In all settlements - flooded and subject to the threat of flooding - the police work. Cases of looting are not registered. Round-the-clock duty of the involved forces continues.
Work continues on cleaning and disinfection of areas from which water flows.
The hotline continues to operate in the Russian Emergencies Ministry for the Amur Region. Specialists received 2,811 calls. Over the past 24 hours, the hotline received 118 calls. Three psychologists were involved to work on the phone.
Along with rescuers, the military is working in the Amur Region. A group of 11,167 people and 1,936 pieces of equipment is deployed on the territory of the region, including 3,540 people and 498 pieces of equipment from the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations continue to constantly monitor water levels in rivers, monitor the operation of potentially dangerous facilities, life support and social facilities. Operating headquarters working group the government commission, the regional center and the main department for the Amur Region, through which interaction between governments of all levels is carried out.
The water level in the Amur near Khabarovsk reached 678 cm as of 16:00. At the beginning of next week, the height of the flood will reach 780 cm, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Khabarovsk Territory told AmurMedia news agency.
As of 16:00 on August 20, 2013, the water level in the Amur near the city of Khabarovsk was 678 cm. Although in the afternoon the water level was recorded at around 676 cm. According to updated information from the Far Eastern Center for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring environment, on the Amur River, maximum water levels are expected to be reached in the cities of Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Nikolaevsky, Khabarovsky, Nanaisky, Amursky, Komsomolsky, Ulchsky districts.
As previously reported by the agency, the height of the water in the Amur is breaking historical records. The difficult flood situation in the Far East forced the authorities to introduce a state of emergency at the federal level in the region and carry out a mass evacuation of the population from certain flooded areas.
So, according to the forecast, the water levels in the Amur can reach the following levels:
Also on August 25-31 on the Tunguska River near the village. Arkhangelovka water can reach 1010-1040 cm.
In this regard, according to the forecast of the Monitoring and Forecasting Department of the Crisis Management Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Khabarovsk Territory, it is possible to flood residential buildings, buildings and structures, certain sections of roads, power transmission line supports, hayfields, fields, summer cottages located in low-floodplain areas and lowlands, near rivers and along the coastline.
Also, according to preliminary data, residential buildings, office buildings and production workshops in the EW area of the fleet may fall into the flooding zone in Khabarovsk. In addition, water may approach along the following road sections: in the EW fleet area between Oboronnaya and Shevchuk streets; at the intersection of Pionerskaya and Kubyaka streets; between Kubiak and Exhibition streets; in the area of the railway intersection near the streets of Pavel Morozov and Bogachev; at the intersection of Pavel Morozov and Industrialnaya streets.
Cupid in the village of Korsakova-2, Khabarovsk district, flooded 26 residential buildings:
Flood waters came close to shopping malls on Pavel Morozov street in Khabarovsk. "Floating" centers "Bayard" and "Choice":
Hail the size of a pigeon's egg fell in the village of Krasnaya Rechka in Khabarovsk. The village heavily affected by the flood was overtaken by a new element, this time from the sky, sports journalist Artem Basnin wrote about this on his Facebook page, IA AmurMedia reports.
“Floods, precipitation are a consequence of the water cycle in nature! Hail the size of a pigeon's egg walked through the area where my grandmother lives (Krasnaya Rechka). It’s also dangerous,” said Artem Basnin. - The hail was very powerful! The slates on the roofs of people were broken, part of the crop, flowers, and other plants were destroyed. We opened umbrellas, but hail pierced them, leaving holes. If the hail had hit the head, the consequences would have been severe.”
The streets located in the coastal part of the Northern District of Khabarvosk are flooded. Cars hardly overcome the water barrier, the correspondent of IA AmurMedia reports.
Private houses in the area of the Daldiesel plant have already been at the mercy of the water element: