Putin vows to aid flooded Yakutia

YAKUTSK, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to rebuild the flood-stricken Siberian region of Yakutia.

The region has been devastated in the worst flooding in the area for 100 years after ice jams plugged the Lena river and caused it to burst its banks.

Putin has pledged to use federal funds to rebuild homes and to use the sale of gold and diamonds from the mineral-rich region to help the victims.

Putin told regional leaders "the damage from the floods is enormous," adding it was vital "not to lose time," said the Associated Press.

The government estimates the flood has affected 42,000 people and it would be necessary to rebuild 10,000 homes.

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.

Lensk and Yakutsk fall in the path of the river Lena, which loops northward for about 1,400 km (860) miles through the Siberian tundra into the Arctic ocean.

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.