Humanitarian aid for flood victims comes 'from the heart' from Russia and abroad

The flooding has hit more than 100,00 people, the authorities acknowledged, with 350 settlements hit including the major cities of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, which continue to suffer serious carnage from bursting rivers caused by heavy rainfall over many weeks. 

Over 100 of these remain underwater in the worst floods since records began. Regions all over Russia have sent help to stricken cities in the east, while international aid has come from Belarus, China and Japan. A plane from Minsk loaded with 43 tonnes of children's nutrition landed in Blagoveshchensk.

'Even though the aid is not very big, it comes from the very heart,' said Belarusian deputy minister of emergency situations Alexander Goncharov.

The Amur region is negotiating with Belarus for potatoes to replace crops lost in the deluge. Drinking water was sent from the Siberian cities of Omsk and Novosibirsk.

'All the country has responded to the misfortune in the Far East. Humanitarian aid comes from all the regions and from individuals,' said emergencies minister Vladimir Puchkov. 'Humanitarian aid is also coming from Belarus and from China.'

A cash donation was sent by Japanese city Niigata to its twin Khabarovsk. 

'Japan is a country, which suffers from time to time from natural calamities, thus we like nobody else realise the might of the nature,' said Niigita mayor Akira Shinoda in a message  to Khabarovsk's Alexander Sokolov. 

'In the times of hardship we always feel support from many countries, including our neighbour - Russia.

The saying is 'A friend in need is a friend indeed'. In order to bring closer the moment Khabarovsk recovers from the flood, our city is transferring to Khabarovsk~s account a monetary assistance of 100,000 yen.'

Puchkov made clear that better space monitoring was needed for the future, along with curbs on housing in high-risk areas. His ministry was 'working on a complex of measures to improve the system of space monitoring and forecast, as well as observations and laboratories in the Far East', he said.

It will modernise the existing space monitoring stations in Khabarovsk, and will organise another station of the kind.

'We have been building up in quality and quantity all the divisions: the rescue centre, the regional search and rescue team,' he added.