Evacuation operations continue today, Saturday, in the regions of the Russian Ural Mountains, which were inundated by massive floods that are also sweeping neighboring Kazakhstan, where more than 100,000 people were evacuated, without signs of any relief as the water level continues to rise.
These floods were caused by heavy rains associated with rising temperatures, accelerated snowmelt, and disintegration of winter ice covering rivers and streams.
In Orenburg, one of the worst-hit cities in the Russian region of the same name bordering Kazakhstan, the waters of the Ural River partially submerged some roads and flowed into residential areas, turning neighborhoods into puddles.
On Saturday morning, the river level reached 11.71 metres, according to local authorities. This is well above the threshold considered critical, and represents a further increase of about 42 centimeters compared to the previous day.
The city municipality said that about 14,000 people were evacuated, while thousands of homes were flooded. Rescue workers and law enforcement authorities continued to help residents leave their homes on Saturday.
“The situation is difficult,” Alexander Budargin (25 years old) said in one of the flooded Orenburg neighborhoods.
Budargin, who works in the field of logistics, confirmed, “My parents’ house was almost completely submerged yesterday.” He added that neighbors sent a video clip showing the house that his parents left, submerged in water “up to roof level.”
Budargin, who currently resides in a residential tower surrounded by water, pointed out, “Unfortunately, the water is also approaching us… and I do not know how things will develop.”
Authorities pick up evacuated residents using large police trucks that can pass through water. Among them, children wearing rain boots mingle with adults carrying suitcases or even their pets' cages.
Eldar Rakhmetov, an official at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, confirmed that he had noticed “an increase in the number of flooded homes this morning, and more evacuations are being organized.”
But despite the conditions, the city appears to be maintaining calm and near-normal life, with transportation and some businesses remaining open.
To the east, the Kurgan region risks being inundated in the coming days.
The governor of the region, Vadim Chumkov, called on residents of the affected areas to leave their homes “preventively” without waiting for the water to rise further.
He said, “Water is treacherous. With its current size, it is impossible to predict how high it will rise.” He added, citing authorities' forecasts, that a “sharp rise” in water levels is expected in the coming days, portending a “difficult situation.”
In Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,500-kilometre border with Russia, water reached the outskirts of the city of Petropavlovsk, the capital of the North Kazakh region with a population of 220,000 people, who were partially deprived of electricity and potable water.
In total, more than 103,000 people have been evacuated in this vast Central Asian country, a third of them children, while about 5,000 homes have been flooded so far and 73 towns have been isolated, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
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