A dike has burst near the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, and more than 4,000 houses, in which almost 11,000 people live, are at risk of being flooded. Evacuation has begun from threatened areas, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Friday. The broken dam was not a water management work, but serves to regulate the river that flows through the city, the Kommersant newspaper noted on its website, recalling that flooding plagues the entire region.
Moscow
22:31 April 5, 2024 Share on Facebook
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Part of Russia is affected by heavy floods (illustrative photo) | Source: Profimedia
TASS later specified that part of the embankment broke in the Old Town, that is, in the part of Orsk, which lies on the Asian side of the Ural River. “Inhabitants of the city are being evacuated from houses that are in the flood zone,” the agency quoted a representative of the rescue services as saying.
“The protective embankment in the Old Town in the vicinity of Orenburská Street has burst. The evacuation of residents continues. The flood zone includes 4,258 houses and 10,987 people,” the city hall said, according to TASS. Residents are taken by buses of private carriers and the municipal transport company to emergency dormitories set up in schools. Two hundred police officers are helping with the evacuation.
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The city is under a state of emergency. Even before the dam broke, the authorities advised the residents of several streets to take their documents and go to temporary accommodation. Rescuers from Moscow and Perm are also on the scene.
Rescuers, together with municipal services workers, are trying to reseal and strengthen the broken dam with the help of technology, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
According to available data, about 190,000 people live in Orsk, the second largest city in the region. The city is located about 100 kilometers southeast of the southern tip of the Ural Mountains and the Ural River flows through it, dividing the agglomeration into the New City, located in Europe, and the Old City, which is already in Asia. There is a border crossing with Kazakhstan about 15 kilometers south of the city.
In the Orenburg region, where river levels have risen sharply, 1,825 residential houses in 95 municipalities are flooded. On Thursday night, the flow of water from the Iriklin reservoir on the Ural River increased from 890 to 1,672 cubic meters per second. A state of emergency is in effect across the region, Kommersant added.
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