In outlying regions of Yakutsk, however, families prepared for another night camped out in rickety boats and on house roofs crowded with chickens, goats and other livestock. The flood, which ravaged the town of Lensk last week, has killed six people and left two missing, officials said. An estimated 4,000 houses have been destroyed or heavily damaged. Putin left Moscow on Wednesday night for the town of Mirny for a session of the federal commission today to assess damage and needs in the region. Putin was also expected to tour the region.
Siberian rivers flood regularly because they flow from south to north.
The snow that melts in the south, where the spring thaw begins earlier, runs into ice in the still chilly north. But this year an unusually cold winter and a warm spring combined to create a huge deluge, which authorities hadn't seen in Siberia for 100 years.