Weeks of flooding in Russia has left the giant nation with an equally-sized damage bill, reportedly in the neighbourhood of one billion roubles.

Water continues to rise in some regions after weeks of heavy rain inundated Russia’s far-eastern regions. A state of emergency has been declared in five separate centres as authorities try to deal with their largest such event in decades.

About 3,500 people were evacuated from flooded areas in southern parts of the Amur Region as the situation deteriorated dramatically over the weekend. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday that over a thousand houses in 28 settlements have been flooded, 29 bridges and around 300km of roads are currently closed and more than 20,000 people with 1,200 pieces of machinery are engaged in fighting flood-waters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Finance, Emergencies and Regional Development Ministries to evaluate the required amount of finance that should be allocated to overcoming the aftermath of the floods, with reports saying the nation has put aside just ten billion roubles for the entire country’s flood budget.

Weather officials have predicted the situation will worsen this week, forecasting a rise of over a metre in key rivers in the next few days.