Reports in Russia say as many as 100,000 people may be evacuated from their homes near the country's border with China if the region's biggest floods for 120 years get worse.
Officials say the floods, caused by a month of unusually heavy rain, are not expected to start receding until early next month.
Television footage has shown rowing boats passing half-submerged houses and military vehicles dumping gravel to counter the floodwaters.
Reuters reports that the flooding has already led to the evacuation of about 170,000 people from the Amur, Khabarovsk and Jewish Autonomous regions.
Water has swamped huge swathes of the countryside with 400,000 hectares of agricultural land submerged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that the damage is extensive but the most significant achievement is that there have been no casualties.
