Homes Flooded in Russia-Kazakhstan Region

AP Reporter

16 April 2024

More homes flooded in Russian region bordering Kazakhstan as river levels rise

In neighbouring Kazakhstan, massive floods have prompted the evacuation of more than 113,000 people, officials said.

A flooded street in Orenburg, Russia Streets have been flooded in Orenburg, Russia (AP) (AP)

Nearly 14,500 homes have been flooded in a Russian region bordering Kazakhstan after water levels spiked in a river, local authorities said.

The floods sparked the evacuation of thousands in the region of Orenburg, located some 745 miles south-east of the capital Moscow, after a dam on the Ural burst last week under the pressure of surging waters.

Local authorities have classified the deluge as an emergency of federal importance, and more than 16,500 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas, the office of the Orenburg governor said on Tuesday.

In the city of Orenburg, the region’s capital, some 5,500 houses remain flooded as water levels in the River Ural in the city gradually decrease, according to officials.

Russia Floods The flooded area at Tobol river in the Kurgan region, Russia (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP) (AP)

The situation is more dire in the south-west of the region near the Kazakh border, where authorities said the river has risen to a dangerous level in the town of Ilek.

Further east along the border, floods also hit the regions of Kurgan and Tyumen after water levels rose in local rivers.

Russian emergency officials said on Tuesday that more than 300 homes have been flooded in Kurgan. In both the Kurgan and Tyumen provinces, evacuations from areas that may be flooded are under way.

In neighbouring Kazakhstan, massive floods have prompted the evacuation of more than 113,000 people to date, Kazakh emergency officials said.

As of Tuesday, more than 5,700 houses remain flooded there, officials said.

Original article

Russia, Kazakhstan fight floods as Putin ally says officials should have done better

Tamara Vaal and Lucy Papachristou, Reuters

16 April 2024

Severe floods continue to inundate parts of Russia

PETROPAVLOVSK, Kazakhstan, April 16 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan’s president described floods across the north of the country as a national disaster on Tuesday and ordered his government to free up funds for relief efforts by cutting spending elsewhere.

In Russia, also hit by the worse floods in living memory, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin said regional authorities had fallen short in their forecasting and emergency response.

Water levels in rivers in swathes of Russia’s Ural and southwestern Siberian regions, as well as adjacent areas of Kazakhstan, were still rising rapidly, officials said.

The disaster has been caused by the fast melting of large snowfalls amid heavy rain, swelling the tributaries of several of Europe’s largest rivers.

The total number of people evacuated from their home, which had stood at 125,000 as of late Monday, rose towards 200,000 as the governor of Russia’s Tyumen region told residents of Ishim, a town of 65,000, that they should leave urgently.

The probability is growing of dams bursting, or water pouring over them, governor Alexander Moor said. You all know about the danger. Gather your valuables. Immediately drive to safe places, to relatives or evacuation points where we will supply you with all essentials.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Petropavlovsk, where the local governor said 10,345 people had been evacuated as parts of the city remained under water.

We are going through tough times. This is a disaster of a national scale, Tokayev told residents. I think the next 10 days will be critical, but we are already taking measures to rebuild the country and deal with the aftermath of this disaster.

Photo: A drone view shows a flooded area around the Dubki residential complex in Orenburg, Russia, 12 April 2024. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo.

Tokayev’s office said that in order to free up money for disaster relief, he had ordered the cabinet to cut all non-essential budget spending and cancel some events, including an economics and international affairs conference in the capital.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles some 1% of global oil, said it was working to protect its facilities from floods in Kazakhstan’s Atyrau region.

In Russia, Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said huge material damage could have been minimised if regional authorities had paid more attention to forecasting the water levels and responding more effectively.

Some people in the affected areas have also expressed frustration with the authorities.

I don’t want to blame anyone, but if it was known from mid-March that the flood would be severe, why didn’t the city and regional administration do anything? one resident of the Russian city of Orenburg posted on social media.

Others mocked the authorities for carrying out non-urgent renovations on a street in the centre of the city instead of focusing on dams. Orenburg is drowning, and they are removing tiles, one person wrote.

In Kurgan, some locals singled out regional governor Vadim Shumkov for criticism. Why is there such a mess going on here? one resident posted.

But another Kurgan local, who gave his name as Oleg, told Reuters the authorities had done good work ahead of the floods to strengthen the dam and evacuate residents.

I haven’t seen such protective measures in my whole time in the city, the 47-year-old said, adding that the floods had not yet reached his neighbourhood and he was staying put for now in his multi-story apartment building.

Reporting by Tamara Vaal in Petropavlovsk and Lucy Papachristou in London; additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty and Lidia Kelly in Lisbon; editing by Mark Trevelyan, Alexandra Hudson

Original article

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