Siberia: Recovery of flood-hit areas has begun

After four days of extreme rainfall in southern Siberia, the state of emergency has been declared on May 30th in the mountainous Republic of Altai, immediately followed by a large scale recovery operation including the deployment fire and rescue groups, medics and specialists and humanitarian supplies delivery schemes.

UN-SPIDER’s Regional Support Office in Russia, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) announced on 3 June that this “large-scale rescue operation” is currently underway and that reconstruction works have already started in the flood-hit areas.

As a second step, the Ministry’s units are providing specific targeted assistance to each house and each social facility affected.

As declared by the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov, within the protection of “all the townships and potentially hazardous areas, a special space system monitors the situation and the met office and all the federal structures are engaged.”