Putin said the financing of the repair work is to be discussed in Moscow on May 29. Floodwaters surged past the sand-bagged regional capital Yakutsk on Wednesday and water levels began to fall. But villages further downstream are still under threat as the ice jams clogging the Lena river have not yet been destroyed, despite being bombarded by Russian warplanes. Last week the flood ravaged Lensk, home to 26,000 people, before inundating parts of Yakutsk. So far six people are confirmed dead and at least two are missing.
Siberian rivers flood regularly because they flow from south to north.
Water flowing from the south where the spring thaw occurs earlier runs into blocks of ice that have not yet melted in the north. But local officials were astounded by the intensity of this year's deluge, which experts say was caused by a combination of an exceptionally harsh winter and unusually warm spring. Emergency workers fought the floods using jet bombers and icebreakers to disperse the ice jams. Alongside local volunteers, they have banked up sand on dykes that have succeeded in holding back the floodwaters in much of Yakutsk. An AOL Time Warner Company.