image copyrightRussian Emergencies Ministry
Photo caption,
An employee of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations visiting houses in a part of Orsk threatened by flooding
6 April 2024, 02:18 GMT
Updated 5 hours ago
In the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, after a record release of water from a reservoir, a dam broke on the Ural River. Authorities asked residents of areas at risk of flooding to take urgent measures to evacuate. The water will go away no sooner than in a week and a half, the head of the city warned.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, the dam in Orsk was built 10 years ago. This is not a hydraulic structure, but an embankment dam, the main task of which is to protect the road and strengthen the river bank.
In recent days, the Orenburg region has seen a peak of flooding. Therefore, on Thursday, April 4, a state of emergency was introduced throughout the region.
The water level in the Ural River, on which Orsk stands, has risen sharply, causing a record water release to be made from the Iriklinsky reservoir, local media reported.
Photo copyright: Sergei Puzyrev/TASS
Photo caption,
Authorities deployed dozens of dump trucks to clean up the dam break.
The head of Orsk, Vasily Kozupitsa, said that the dam must withstand an unprecedented load, although the water has not yet risen to such levels since the dam was put into operation in 2014. She couldn’t stand it.
The water broke the dam in two places, Kozupica said Friday evening. “Water can arrive quickly, so maximum efficiency is required,” the city mayor warned.
Two of the three districts of the city – Leninsky and Sovetsky – were under threat of flooding. Orsk is the second largest city in the Orenburg region, almost 190 thousand people live in it. It is located near the border with Kazakhstan, 286 kilometers from the regional center, the Ural River divides it into two parts – European and Asian.
Now water is flooding the Old Town microdistrict in the Sovetsky district of Orsk on the left (Asian) bank of the Urals. It is mainly built up with one-story, two- and three-story houses built in the 1930s and modern cottages, Interfax writes.
Author of the photo, t.me/ural56ru
Photo caption,
Water flows into the Old City
“Bulk part [дамбы] broke through in the Old City zone. There is a private sector there, which is regularly flooded,” the press service of the governor of the Orenburg region told the agency. “People were invited in advance to evacuate, some were preventively evacuated during the day, and the evacuation continues.”
“In the near future, the entire residential sector of the Old Town will be flooded. Residents need to take urgent measures to evacuate,” the city administration warned on VKontakte.
Currently, about 600 houses on nine streets are flooded, and water continues to flow into the old part of the city of Orsk, reports the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
People were evacuated by buses and minibuses to their relatives in New Town on the other side of the Urals and to temporary accommodation centers opened in schools. The electricity was cut off in the Old Town. The Ministry of Emergency Situations publishes a video in which rescuers go around the private sector and tell people to leave.
More than 4 thousand houses and almost 11 thousand residents fall into the flood zone, according to statements by the authorities.
Photo by t.me/orenburg_media
Photo caption,
Rescuers in Orsk
The Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that they are trying to eliminate the consequences of a dam break in Orsk; dozens of heavy-duty trucks are involved in the work.
A significant gap has formed in the dam, Kommersant notes. This can be seen in videos filmed by eyewitnesses. “That’s it, we’re off, mommy,” says a woman’s voice-over in one of the videos.
The publication “Ural56.ru” publishes footage in which the water has already entered the Old Town and continues to “rapidly rise.” In other footage, a bulldozer is trying to fill the breakout site with soil.
While patrolling the area in the Old Town of Orsk, two bodies were discovered, but, according to preliminary data, their deaths were not related to drowning, the regional government told RIA Novosti.
Other victims are not yet known. There are 235 people in temporary accommodation centers, the rest have moved from their homes to relatives.
Author of the photo, t.me/ural56ru
Photo caption,
The Ural56.Ru publication publishes photos of the consequences of the flood and dam break
Not only Orsk, but also Orenburg suffered from the flood. City authorities are asking residents of several districts of the regional center to evacuate.
“The 2024 flood in the Orenburg region is the strongest in the last few decades,” writes Orenburg Media. — A difficult situation was observed in almost all territories of the region, including Orsk: suburban villages have been drowning here for several days. However, the situation with the dam failure led to the evacuation of several thousand people from the flood zone in one evening.”
The level of the Ural River on Saturday morning is 9.27 meters, which is more than 2 meters above the dangerous level, the head of Orsk said. Half of the Old City was flooded. The water level is rising rapidly.
The water will not go away within two or three days, it will go away within one and a half to two weeks, and maybe more, Ural56.ru quotes him. According to Kozupica, damage to houses will occur – and not all of them will be immediately livable.
