Thousands of houses are under water, numerous towns have been evacuated: people in the Russian regions of Orenburg and Kurgan continue to fight the floods. The water levels are expected to fall in two days.
The situation remains tense in the flood areas in the southern Russian regions along the border with Kazakhstan: In Orenburg, the water level of the Ural River continued to rise – by almost 70 cm within 24 hours, which, according to Deputy Mayor Alexei Kudinov, led to flooding of other houses have.
Around 100 other residents were brought to safety. The peak will probably be reached on Friday, said Kudinov, according to the state news agency RIA. The floods are expected to recede in two days. According to authorities, the water level in Orenburg was 11.29 meters in the morning. The critical mark has therefore been exceeded by almost two meters.
At the same time, authorities warned of possible power outages in some neighborhoods as the rising water also endangers the energy infrastructure.
16 medical facilities flooded
Orenburg is located about 1,200 kilometers southeast of Moscow in the oblast of the same name. Large parts of the city, which has a population of 550,000, are already flooded. Thousands of people were evacuated over the past weekend after the dam could no longer withstand rising water levels. The Russian government declared a state of emergency.
According to the region’s governor, Denis Pasler, around 12,000 buildings and 16 medical facilities were flooded. The total damage caused by the flood is estimated at over 40 billion rubles – the equivalent of around 400 million euros.
Village in Kurgan evacuated
In the northeastern Kurgan region, the village of Kaminskoye on the Tobol River also had to be evacuated due to rapidly rising water levels. The governor of Kurgan, Vadim Shumkov, said on Telegram that the water level had risen by 1.4 meters.
The Tobol, on which Kaminskoye is located, also flows through the city of the same name, Kurgan, where around 300,000 people live. There could also be flooding there in the coming days, said Shumkov. “We can only hope that the flood plain expands widely and the ground absorbs as much water as possible along its path.” A dam is being strengthened in Kurgan.
According to media reports, residents of the affected regions complain about the authorities’ poor crisis management.
state of emergency also in Kazakhstan
The Russian regions of Kurgan and Orenburg border Kazakhstan, where severe flooding has also occurred. According to the Kazakhstan Ministry of Emergency Situations, almost 100,000 people were brought to safety from the floods. The state of emergency continues to apply in eight of Kazakhstan’s 17 provinces.
This year, several factors came together to trigger the unusually severe flooding. According to Russian civil protection experts, the ground was already soaked before winter. It froze under very heavy snowfalls, and then when temperatures rose rapidly in the spring, the mixture melted – accompanied by heavy rains.