Russia cleans up after Typhoon Khanun floods thousands of homes

Rescuers use inflatable boats to evacuate residents of the area flooded due to a dam break in Ussuriysk, Russia, in this still image taken from video released August 12, 2023. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Russia sent a task force to oversee the cleanup of parts of the country’s Far East on Sunday after Typhoon Khanun (locally named Falcon in the Philippines) passed through the Primorye region, the emergencies ministry in Moscow said.

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the ministry as saying the number of flooded homes stood at 4,368 while 5,654 adjoining plots and 7 apartment buildings also were flooded. It said 28 settlements remained cut off.

It said most of the affected homes were in the cities of Ussuriysk and Spassk-Dalny, and in the Oktyabrsky municipal district, in the region of Primorye, where the port of Vladivostok is the administrative center.

The ministry said in its Telegram channel that the task force would “coordinate the work to eliminate the consequences of the flood.” It said its aircraft delivered humanitarian aid and Mi-8 helicopters helped transfer rescuers to the site.

It added there were no reports of casualties and that it had avoided more serious damage by sending units in early.

TASS said the flood in Ussuriysk, the second largest city in Primorye, was the worst and biggest in a decade and that it had affected between 35 and 40 percent of its territory.

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