Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 04/98) - It's disaster on a scale the North has yet to see, in a part of the world few of us have heard of. But there's a Northern connection to the disaster relief effort in Sakha.

Since mid-May, residents of the Russian republic have had to deal with one of the most devastating floods their region has ever experienced.

More than 100 sites and villages inhabited by 170,000 people have been flooded. Fourteen people have died and the future of others remains bleak. More than 9,000 homes have been damaged. Over 600 offices, 300 hospitals, schools and old folks homes have also been destroyed.

Many charitable donations and kind businesses have come to the aid of flood victims, including a company that's been doing business in the North for many years,

Echo Bay Mines, owner of the Lupin Mine.

Lupin, a gold producer 400 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, has been shut down since Christmas because of weak gold prices. Nearly 500 people have been laid off.

"We have this asset (a plane) unfortunately sitting idle because of the low gold price and here was a really good use for it," said Robbin Lee, spokesperson for Echo Bay Mines based in Denver, Colorado.

Echo Bay Mines' Boeing 727 aircraft, formerly based in Yellowknife and used to fly equipment and supplies to the mine site, will fly materials from Alaska to Russia through Yakutsk, the capital of Sakha.

Echo Bay's Edmonton-based crew and aviation department are handling the logistics of getting the material to the far east of Russia.

"These people were living basically in cashless conditions because of the Ruble issues and how far behind the government is in paying everyone. They basically barter for a living but their ability to barter was destroyed by flooding. They lost their cattle and they lost their crops," said Lee.

Ferguson Simek Clark, a Northern architecture and engineering firm also has ties to the region, with their designs and buildings now a popular site spread throughout the city of Yakutsk.

Although their buildings were not in the affected areas, "they replace housing that has been destroyed in previous floods," says FSC's operating manager Jerry Jaud.

The call for relief began when Sakha Republic President Mikhail Nikolayev called upon Alaskan Governor Tony Knowles to help out their circumpolar neighbour.

Knowles and Alaskans responded by collecting 14 tons of clothes, bedding, medical supplies and equipment.

After arriving in Russia, company officials were scheduled to meet last week with President Nikolayev who will arrange for the distribution of the goods.

This will only be the second or third relief contribution Sakha residents have received.