About 17,000 people had been evacuated in Russia as of Saturday as its Far East region sees its worst flooding in more than a century, authorities said. Tens of thousands of emergency services workers and civilians were battling to keep the rising Amur River on the border with China at bay, DPA reported. About 5,300 houses in more than 120 communities had been swamped by the flooding, caused by heavy rain, Civil Defence Minister Vladimir Puchkov told President Vladimir Putin in a videoconference broadcast on state television. Emergency workers used boats and aircraft in the rescue operations with some residents being plucked by helicopter from the rooftops of flooded buildings. The Amur region is the worst-hit. Putin promised additional aid - with an initial boost of 100 million rubles (3 million dollars) - for the region, 6,000 kilometres east of Moscow. However, the bill for the damage was expected to spiral much higher. Yevgeni Dod of the state-run energy supplier Rushydro spoke of the worst flooding in the region for 120 years.
