Situation in flood-affected Dagestan, Chechnya classed as federal emergency

A Russian governmental commission for disaster prevention and response, chaired by Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov, has classed the situation in the aftermath of floods in Dagestan and Chechnya as a federal emergency, an Interfax correspondent reported on Thursday.

Previously, the regions declared emergencies on a regional scale.

On Thursday, Kurenkov, the minister of natural resources and the construction minister arrived in Makhachkala to coordinate the response effort.

Heavy rains on March 28 and on April 4-5 led to massive flooding in Dagestan. The regional authorities imposed a state of emergency in Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, Dagestanskiy Ogni, Kaspiysk and in the Derbent, Karabudakhkent, Khasavyurt, Gumbetovsky, Babayurt, Novolakskoye and Kaytagsky districts.

A rise in water levels flooded over a section of a federal highway in Dagestan's Derbent district. A dam failure in Gedzhukhskoye Reservoir prompted the evacuation of more than 4,000 people from four of the district's areas. According to the latest data, the floods left six people dead and more than 6,200 injured. Criminal cases have been opened to investigate the deaths.

Currently, 1,091 houses, 1,146 land plots and 70 road sections remain flooded in eight Dagestani settlements.