More than 4,000 people were evacuated from a flooded area following the rupture of a dam on Friday in the Russian region of Orenburg, in the Urals, regional authorities announced on Saturday, the incident also taking place in the middle of melt of ice. “4,208 people, including 1,019 children, were evacuated,” the press service of the regional governor, Denis Pasler, announced on Télégramme. In total, a little more than 2,500 houses were “flooded” in this border region of Kazakhstan, they said in a press release.
Evacuated people are being redirected “to temporary accommodation centers,” Mr. Pasler said in a separate message, announcing exceptional financial aid. These significant floods come the day after the rupture of a dam on Friday in Orsk, a town located on the border with neighboring Kazakhstan, explained the regional prosecutor’s office, which is monitoring the case. According to this source, “a warning” to Orsk town hall was given in March regarding a “violation of legislation on the protection of the population and territories against natural and man-made emergencies”.
Partially collapsed
According to regional authorities, the dam, which partially collapsed, is designed specifically for a level of the Urals, the region’s great river, of 5.5 m, compared to 9.6 meters currently. The regional authorities, for their part, also mentioned the melting of snow which causes “the rise” of rivers in the region – including the Urals – as an additional “reason” for the floods. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations published a video of the evacuations, showing water entering houses, civilians being evacuated by rescuers with their feet in the water.
Some elderly people were helped by several rescuers to leave their flooded homes, according to these images. These floods due to melting snow are also affecting Kazakhstan, a country bordering Russia, which prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev to speak out in a televised speech. The leader spoke on Saturday of “a natural disaster”, “perhaps the greatest, in terms of scale and consequences, of the last 80 years”. “The situation is difficult, but we must not despair (…) The main thing is to avoid human losses,” he assured, announcing that “due to floods, emergency situations local conditions were declared in ten regions of the country.