MOSCOW ( AP )– Russia’s state has declared the position in flood- reach areas in the Orenburg place a national emergency, state media reported.
The storms, caused by rising waters levels in the Ural River, forced over 4, 000 people, including 885 kids, to leave, the provincial authorities said. State media agency Tass said that a deeper 2, 000 houses were flooded, bringing the total to almost 6, 300 in the region.
Alexander Kurenkov, the country’s disaster situation minister, arrived in Orsk, one of the hardest-hit places, on Sunday to oversee rescue operations.
According to RIA Novosti, the minister said,” I propose classifying the position in the Orenburg area as a national emergency and setting up a national level of response.”
Orsk, less than 20 kilometers ( 12.4 miles ) north of the border with Kazakhstan, suffered the brunt of the floods which caused a dam to break on Friday, according to Orsk mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. By Sunday night, 4, 500 residential buildings in the city of 200, 000 were flooded and removal efforts were still continued, Tass said.
Hundreds Evacuated in Russia’s Orsk as Floods Break Through Damhttps: //t. co/zV96V48j8M
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To look into alleged building errors that might have caused the dam to tear, a criminal investigation has been launched. According to local authorities, the dam could withstand water levels up to 5.5 meters ( approximately 18 feet ). On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 9.3 meters ( 30.51 feet ) and rising, Kozupitsa said. On Sunday, the level in Orsk reached 9.7 meters ( 31.82 feet ), according to Russia’s water level information site AllRivers.
Officials in Orsk reported that four people had died, but they denied that their deaths had anything to do with the inundation.
Officials in the regional capital ( also called Orenburg ) some 250 kilometers ( 155 miles ) away from Orsk, wrote on Telegram Sunday that the situation in the city was “getting worse”, as water levels increased by 28 centimeters ( 11.02 inches ) centimeters compared to the previous day. Over 1, 300 properties flooded and 428 people evacuated, they said.
Water was seen on Orsk and Orenburg’s images showing the roadways dotted with one-story homes.
The Ural River, about 2, 428 kilometers- ( 1, 509 miles ) long, flows from the southeastern part of the Southeast into the northern end of the Caspian Sea, through Russia and Kazakhstan.
