Heavy rains flood villages in Russia's climate-hit Far East

Heavy rainfall has flooded several villages in Yakutia, in Russia's Far East region, authorities said on Tuesday.

Yakutia has been badly affected in recent summers by extreme weather -- including wildfires and floods -- that scientists say is linked to climate change.

Such extreme weather events are expected to become even more frequent, more prolonged and more intense in the future.

The government of the Yakutia republic said the rains had broken structures around a dam and left a remote village in Siberia "almost entirely" flooded.

Dozens of people have had to leave their homes, it said.

"Due to heavy rains on July 11, despite the installation of protective structures, a dam broke and flooded the village of Betenkes almost entirely," the Yakutia government wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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The small village lies on the banks of the Adycha River in northeastern Siberia.

"At 7:00 am this morning, the water level reached a critical 1,000 centimetres (330 feet)," the local government said.

It said 36 homes had been flooded and more than 100 plots of lands.

A dozen people were in state temporary accommodation, while 72 others were staying with relatives, it added.

The local government published photos of rescuers on a small boat leading horses through the flooded village, surrounded by wooden houses deep in water.

It also said authorities were working to bring supplies to other flooded villages.

On Telegram it published a video of a propeller plane being loaded with more than two tonnes of food for flood victims in the remote village of Suordakh, in the western part of Yakutia.

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The plane will then ferry elderly people and children from the village to the regional capital, Yakutsk.

Flooding in recent days has damaged 85 houses in Suordakh, where 317 people live, the authorities said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made comments earlier in his rule suggesting scepticism about climate change but has in recent years ordered his government to protect Russia from the effects of changing weather.

Source: AFP