On April 7, a dam burst on the Ural River in southwestern Russia caused massive flooding, damaging at least 6,000 households and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. The photo shows a rescue vehicle moving through a flooded residential area in Orsk, Urals region, on the 6th. From a video provided by the Ministry of Emergency Situations (2024 Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A dam burst on the Ural River in southwestern Russia has caused massive flooding, inundating at least 10,000 homes and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
The floods are some of the worst in decades, and in recent days have affected a wide range of areas, from the Urals to Siberia to the border with Kazakhstan.
Floodwaters flooded the entire city of Orsk, which has a population of 230,000 people, and more than 4,000 people were evacuated. Six adults and three children were hospitalized, but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, state news agency TASS said.
On the 5th, the Ural River rose several meters in a few hours due to melting snow, causing a dam in the city of Orsk, 1,800 km east of Moscow, to burst.
According to the mayor of Orsk, another river in the city also burst its banks. This was reported by several domestic news agencies.
According to local authorities, more than 6,100 people were evacuated and 15 out of 40 schools were flooded.
President Putin ordered Emergency Situations Minister Klenkov to go to the scene. The presidential palace said on the 7th that flood damage was unavoidable in the Kurgan and Tyumen oblasts, adding that Putin had spoken by telephone with the heads of local governments in the regions.
In Kurgan, the capital of Kurgan Oblast with a population of 310,000 people, authorities ordered residents along rivers to evacuate immediately and warned that flooding was coming soon.
Governor Pasler of Orenburg Oblast described the floods as the worst on record in the Orenburg Oblast, and said the floods had spread across the entire 2,400 km stretch of the Ural River.
Local media quoted Orenburg oblast authorities as estimating the damage in the region to be around 21 billion rubles ($227 million), with water not expected to recede until the 20th.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his condolences to President Putin and said, “The North Korean people will always be with the Russian people.”
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2024-04-08 00:40:00
