Flooding in the Russian province of Siberia has claimed its first victim, and there are fears of more as waters from the swollen Lena river head for the city of Yakutsk, having already destroyed a town upstream.
The victim, a 70-year-old woman, drowned after the boat she was using to escape the flooding with her husband overturned in fast currents at the town of Lensk, now under water.
The flooding has been triggered by the fast-melting snows from an exceptionally cold winter which saw snowfalls 50 per cent higher than normal. Much of the damage has been caused by huge ice blocks being pushed downriver on the flood waters, demolishing bridges and homes.
Twice last week the Russian air force sent bombers to hit the ice flows upstream in an desperate attempt to prevent "ice dams" from forming. But the key problem is the amount of melting snow now pouring into the Lena, a massive river which cuts through Siberia from south to north, emptying into the Arctic.
The 20,000 residents of Lensk have been evacuated as their homes have slid under the floodwaters, with many families being plucked by helicopter from rooftops.
Now Yakutsk, 550 miles downstream, is bracing itself for the arrival of the surge, expected early this week.
Residents with shovels are frantically building defence barriers with sand, being trucked in by every vehicle the city can spare. Russian television showed rising waters already lapping the tops of these river defences.
Lensk town council chief Vasily Vlasov said his town has been wiped out and must be rebuilt - and he is calling on the government to rebuild it somewhere else, to avoid the chance of a repeat disaster.
Meanwhile, flooding in another river, the Yenisei, more than a thousand miles to the north-west, has caused the river port of Dudinka to brace for evacuation.
The flooding has cut into the region's already depressed economy. Lensk is the key port for Russia's main diamond exporter, which has suspended operations. So has the state nickel firm, Norinsk Nickel, which says traffic along the normally busy river will be impossible for weeks.
These are grim times for Russia's far eastern provinces, which froze under temperatures of minus 50 in an unusually cold winter. Making it worse still, some areas ran out of fuel oil, leading centrally heated apartment blocks to freeze.
Russia remains unconvinced by US arguments in favour of deploying a national missile defense (NMD) shield, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, said at the weekend. However, he expressed optimism about the first summit between President Bush and President Putin, due to take place in Slovenia on June 16th.