Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS
Photo caption,
The village of Nikel within Orsk, which was flooded after the second dam broke – already on the right bank of the Urals
time ago
Orsk, the second largest city in the Orenburg region with a population of almost 200 thousand people, continues to be flooded by the Ural River, the level of which during the flood period, as authorities say, rose to a record level for the entire period of meteorological observations. The dams could not cope with the pressure of water. Sirens sound in the flooded city and mass evacuation continues.
The latest official figures are now as follows: 2,450 houses and 3,185 adjacent areas were flooded in the city; more than 700 rescuers from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations are working in Orsk. Data on evacuees was not specified on Sunday; the day before the authorities announced about 2 thousand. A criminal case was initiated under two articles – violation of safety rules during construction work and negligence.
More than 10 years ago, embankment dams were built on both banks of the Urals in Orsk at some distance from the river. Such dams are made of soil and crushed stone. They prevented water from approaching residential buildings during the spring flood.
This year the flood was stronger. Therefore, upstream the hydroelectric station had to increase the discharge of water from the Iriklinsky reservoir. The dams could not withstand the record pressure of water.
On Friday, the first dam break occurred on the left bank of the Urals and the Old City began to flood. There are mostly cottage buildings there, and on Saturday afternoon a huge area was covered with brown water.
Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS
Photo caption,
The Old Town in Orsk is mainly a private sector
Over the course of a day, the flooded area in Orsk expanded several times. On Sunday morning, the evacuation of three more streets was announced, and electricity and gas began to be cut off in flooded neighborhoods.
Right bank after left
People from the Old Town were evacuated the day before to the right bank of the New Town, where there are multi-storey residential buildings and various enterprises. By Saturday evening the water had reached there too.
Firstly, Gagarin Square, next to which the city bus station is located, was flooded and where rescuers using special equipment carried evacuees across the river so that they could then go by bus to relatives or to temporary accommodation centers. The evacuation center had to be moved further away from the flooding river.
From there, the water flowed along the central Stroiteley Street and neighboring streets with apartment buildings. At night, water began to pour into the entrances. People left their houses in knee-deep water. “The situation in the Stroiteley Street area is getting worse and worse. The lights were turned off,” the Orsk.ru portal described what was happening.
In the morning, boats were already floating on Gagarin Square, and there was water in the courtyards of multi-story buildings. The bus station was not flooded.
Photo by t.me/orskdotru
Photo caption,
The Orsk.ru portal keeps a photo chronicle of the flooding of the city – this is what Gagarin Square looked like on Sunday morning
Secondly, on Saturday evening the working village of Nikel began to flood – it is within the city limits on the same right bank. A second dam broke next to it – the Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed a new breakthrough.
Eyewitnesses published footage of water quickly approaching their homes. Rescue equipment was stationed on the streets to carry out emergency evacuation. The siren started wailing. Police cars with loudspeakers drove around the area. “In 15-20 minutes, the road will be flooded,” one of the local residents said in the video.
“There was a breakthrough – first an overflow, and then a breakthrough in the area of Bogrisoglebsky Street. And water is rapidly flowing into this part of the city,” Orsk Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa told reporters. “Given the sad experience of the Old City yesterday, how quickly the water comes and how difficult it is to evacuate later, I ask you to evacuate in a timely manner.”
However, not everyone in the village of Nikel agreed to leave. “We have the third floor – why do we have to evacuate? — one of the residents told an Orsk.ru correspondent. — We stocked up on food and water. We are not afraid.”
“This situation repeats 1957. Then there was a flood, and [поселок] Nickel flooded. Only then there was no dam. Now everything is going roughly according to the same scenario. But the avenue [Никельщиков] there shouldn’t be much flooding: the water can go to the left, through the hollows, to the lake,” local resident Alexey, who helped the rescuers, told Orenburg Media.
After new sirens howled, rescuers asked volunteers to remove their cars, because Nikelshchikov Avenue was also in the flood zone. “The village went under water overnight,” the newspaper writes.
Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS
Photo caption,
Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other regions of Russia arrived to help the Orenburg rescuers
“The water is coming with terrible force”
On the left bank of the Urals, from which the flood began in Orsk, water began to approach the area of the railway station on Saturday, and even earlier it washed away the tram rails on Vokzalnoe Highway.
“Residents of the 6th microdistrict from Krainaya Street to the station need to urgently evacuate to temporary accommodation centers. Buses for evacuation are waiting in the area of the Pyaterochka store on Krainaya Street,” said a message from the Orsk mayor’s office.
Local telegram channels also warned: “6th microdistrict. The water is rapidly flowing”, “6th microdistrict right now! Water has flooded the roadway of Krainaya Street and is heading towards apartment buildings!”, “6th microdistrict of Orsk. The water is coming with terrible force!”
Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS
Photo caption,
Evacuation from the village of Nikel after the second dam broke on Saturday evening
On Saturday, the Kremlin drew attention to what was happening in the Orenburg region. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, to urgently fly there. On Sunday Kurenkov flew to Orsk.
Authorities do not expect the situation to improve in the near future. “The influx of melt water into [водохранилище] Iriklu from Bashkiria and the Chelyabinsk region has decreased slightly, but is still a record,” Denis Pasler, the governor of the Orenburg region, said on Saturday evening. “Therefore, the Iriklinskaya HPP does not reduce the volume of discharge – 2,170 cubic meters per second are maintained.”
“It is obvious that the 2024 flood is the heaviest in the entire history of observations in the Orenburg region. We continue to fight the elements. In two or three days it will be clear when to expect a reduction,” the governor added (quotes from his Telegram channel).
The mayor of Orsk said on Saturday morning that the water level in the Urals could drop only in one and a half to two weeks.
On Sunday morning, residents of three more streets in Orsk – Shchorsa, Stasov and Kramatorskaya – received an SMS demanding to evacuate. There, sirens howled – water from Gagarin Square is flowing in that direction in a large stream, writes Orsk.ru.
Without waiting for rescuers, people got into their cars and began evacuating themselves. And in the apartment buildings of the 6th microdistrict, electricity and gas were turned off in the morning.
As for water, the authorities ask you to drink only bottled or filtered water – the day before, several people were poisoned and complained to doctors.
On Sunday they travel along Stroiteley Street by motor boats.
Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS
Photo caption,
We have never seen such a Ural before, local telegram channels write (the photo shows the private sector in the Old Town, where the flooding began on Saturday night)
