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Dmitry Medvedev ordered the minister to arrange within one day the compensation payments to those affected by the floods in Krasnodar Territory.

The President also called for the establishment of reliable mechanisms to warn the public of emergency situations and instructed the Regional Development Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Emergency Situations Ministry to jointly review every option.

Flash floods hit seventeen settlements in Krasnodar Territory on the night of October 16, leaving 14 people dead and four missing.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Tragedy has struck the Tuapse County in Krasnodar Territory. We talked on Saturday after I spoke with the Governor. I asked you then to provide the regional authorities with necessary assistance in arranging decisions on rebuilding and helping to coordinate work on the ground. Of course, the Government must do everything possible in this situation to help and support people left homeless. Sadly, lives have been lost. The victims’ families must be paid compensation in accordance with the law. Payments must be made immediately, and everyone must be informed accordingly, those affected by the floods, and the victims’ families.

What is the situation now? I saw that decisions on rebuilding houses are already being taken. Are you in touch with the regional authorities?

Regional DEVELOPMENT MINISTER VIKTOR BASARGIN: Regional Development Ministry personnel are there right at the moment. Officials have been going door-to-door for the second day now. The floods have affected 30 settlements, mostly in three counties: Tuapse County, Apsheron County, and two areas near Sochi. Sadly, the floods have caused victims. Fourteen people died and four people are missing. The search effort is still underway at the moment. The victims’ families will receive one million rubles in compensation in accordance with the law. Unfortunately, more than 5,000 people – 5,058 people – were affected by the floods.

Dmitry Medvedev: The count shows that more than 5,000 people have been affected overall, but to varying extents, because as far as I understand there are houses that can be cleaned of mud and so on.

Viktor Basargin: 1,500 houses were hit by the flooding, and we think that around 1,300 of them can be cleaned up, dried out, cleared of mud. As for the rest, decisions will be made today on the next steps to take.

Dmitry Medvedev: Each household’s specific circumstances should be sorted out. Houses that can be repaired must be repaired, but in cases where this is impossible the decisions need to be made on building new homes. These are always sensitive issues to resolve. You will have to work with the regional authorities on this, all the more so as you already have considerable experience from around the country. Sadly, this is not the first time this region has been hit by this kind of tragedy. As for the compensation payments, everything is to be done, of course.

These events raise the issue once again of the need for properly organised warning mechanisms. Of course we can make the funds available to rebuild houses, but we cannot return the lives lost. We need a warning system that can give people advance warning of natural disasters of this kind. This year we have already had fires, and now floods. We need therefore to come back to this matter. You should work together with the Emergency Situations Ministry and the Interior Ministry to see what can be done to ensure the warning mechanisms respond more rapidly, because it is clear that some things can be prevented.

Viktor Basargin: Yes, unfortunately, this area has been hit by floods before, in 1992 and 2002. It could have been possible to prevent damage to infrastructure such as roads, the water supply networks and power lines, and in some cases some settlements could even have been shifted to different locations rather than rebuilt on the same site. These are things we will work on. 

Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, you must work on this and get to the bottom of who is responsible for what, and sort out what could and could not have been done. In short, take stock of the whole situation and get the Government review the situation together with the authorities of the Krasnodar Territory. After that, report to me on the results. As I said, all decisions on compensation from the federal authorities must be taken today.

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