Russia declares a state of emergency in flood-hit areas as evacuation efforts continue
Representative image | Photo: Bloomberg
The Russian government on Sunday declared flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal state of emergency, state media reported.
The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, have forced more than 4,000 people, including 885 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. State news agency Tass said another 2,000 homes were flooded, bringing the total to almost 6,300 in the region.
Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov arrived on Sunday in Orsk, one of the hardest-hit cities, to oversee the rescue operations.
I propose to classify the situation in the Orenburg region as a federal emergency and establish a federal response level, the minister said, according to RIA Novosti.
Orsk, less than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of the border with Kazakhstan, bore the brunt of the floods that caused a dam to burst on Friday, according to Orsk Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. As of Sunday morning, 4,500 residential buildings in the city of 200,000 were flooded and evacuation efforts were still underway, Tass said.
A criminal investigation has been launched to investigate suspected construction violations that may have led to the dam breaking. Local authorities said the dam could withstand water levels of up to 5.5 meters (nearly 18 feet).
On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 9.3 meters (30.51 feet) and is rising, Kozupitsa said. On Sunday, the level in Orsk reached 9.7 meters (31.82 feet), according to Russian water level information site AllRivers.
Officials in Orsk reported on Sunday that four people had died, but said their deaths were not related to the floods.
Officials in the regional capital (also called Orenburg), some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from Orsk, wrote on Telegram on Sunday that the situation in the city was worsening as water levels rose by 28 centimeters (11.02 inches) increased compared to the previous day. More than 1,300 homes were flooded and 428 people were evacuated, they said.
Images from Orsk and Orenburg showed water covering streets lined with one-story houses.
The Ural River, about 2,428 kilometers long, flows from the southern part of the Ural Mountains to the northern end of the Caspian Sea, through Russia and Kazakhstan.
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First print: April 7, 2024 | 5:05 PM IST