Floods
Flood in Russian Orenburg region exceeds peak
Thousands of houses are still under water in the Orenburg region. photo
© —/AP/dpa
Slight relief in the Russian region, which has so far been hit hardest by floods. Other areas still have the main wave ahead of them.
In the Russian flood plain According to authorities on Sunday, the devastating spring flood in Orenburg, 1,200 kilometers southeast of Moscow, has passed its peak.
The regional administration said the water had drained from more than 1,500 houses and 1,400 gardens since the previous day. The water level in the Ural River fell particularly sharply in the city of Orsk, which was the first to be hit by the flood about ten days ago.
In the regional capital Orenburg, the river reached a high of 11.87 meters for hours on Saturday – almost 2.5 meters above the water level defined as critical. It was only on Sunday that a slight decrease in the water masses of five centimeters was observed in the partially flooded city of half a million people. In the neighboring Kurgan region of Siberia, however, the water level of the Tobol River continues to rise.
After a snowy winter, spring flooding is particularly severe in the geographical border area between Europe and Asia. In addition to Russia, neighboring Kazakhstan is affected. In Russia’s Orenburg region, residents complain that the authorities reacted too late to the danger. The damage to the flooded houses affects hundreds of thousands of people. The administration told the Tass agency that the number of evacuees had risen to 16,500 people by Sunday.