Dikes reinforced in Khabarovsk to protect from flood

More than seven km of dikes built in Khabarovsk to protect the city from the flood must be promptly made higher, a source at the press centre of the regional government told Itar-Tass. The dikes are expected to resist a water level of up to 750 cm, but according to the updated forecast, the water may go up to 780 cm. So, the decision is taken to make the dikes higher with reserve to 820 cm. To be in time, all the mobilized services work day and night and use additional equipment. Thirteen mobile pumping stations are prepared there to pump out water. For the present, the best dike-protected in Khabarovsk are the central embankment near Lenin stadium, the Yerofei ice sport centre and the Stroitel residential district. Other areas located close to the Amur may be hit rather seriously. The most serious situation in the Khabarovsk Territory is expected to be in the village of Belgo of almost 500 people. With the latest forecast, the local authorities are preparing for full evacuation of the village. Authorities in the Nanai district, where the situation is also tense, are ready to fully evacuate residents from the village of Slavyanka, where the local diesel electric station may be also flooded together with houses. The head of the Far Eastern department for environment monitoring, Vyacheslav Paushin, told a press conference on Tuesday that the water in Khabarovsk went up 16 cm over the past 24 hours to 673 cm. The Amur is expected to reach the highest level on August 24-28. The water may rise to 730-780 cm, a metre higher that it was supposed earlier. Up to 50 villages, Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur may be flooded. According to the forecast, the Amur water will begin to go down only in mid-September. At present, 237 houses, 451 yards and more than 4,000 country house plots are flooded in the region.