Floods, dam failure, thousands of evacuations… what is happening in this region of the Urals in Russia ?

Une région de la Russie se retrouve inondée, provoquant l’évacuation de milliers de personnes. MAXPPP – RUSSIAN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE /HANDOUT

This region of the Urals finds itself underwater and the situation is becoming very "critical". Floods, floods, evacuations… an update on what is happening in Russia.

Russian authorities acknowledged on Sunday that flooding in Orsk, in the Urals, had worsened in recent hours, two days after the rupture of a dam which, in full melting of the ice, has already led to the evacuation of several thousand inhabitants. No casualties have been reported at this stage by the Russian authorities.

"A critical situation"

"A critical situation has developed in the city of Orsk", Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov said in his arrival in this industrial city of more than 200,000 inhabitants near the border with Kazakhstan.

Russie : situation critique à Orsk, la ville est sous l’eau après la rupture d’un barrage

pic.twitter.com/OzAgXCoABv

— François Beaudonnet 🌎 (@beaudonnet) April 7, 2024

Images broadcast by his services on Telegram show him surrounded by rescuers in a small boat navigating on the water, this one reaching the windows of certain houses and several businesses. He then went to a temporary accommodation center.

On Friday, the rupture of a dam in Orsk, very close to the border with Kazakhstan, caused a rapid rise in water levels, aggravated by significant disturbances and the melting of ice, a common phenomenon at this time of the year in many Russian regions.

The floods could also not be limited to this area: according to Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, floods "are expected" in the regions of Kurgan and Tyumen, in Western Siberia, "in the coming days".

Thousands of evacuations

In Orsk, more than 4,500 houses have been flooded and more than 4,000 people have already been evacuated to temporary accommodation centers, according to Mr. Kourenkov. Authorities classified the disaster as "federal emergency", thus making it possible to release special funds. Reinforcements also arrived on site to help the specialists already at work. More than 800 people were also evacuated in the neighboring region of Samara, also affected by flooding.

In Orenburg, "we must stabilize the situation and begin to restore damaged infrastructure. All forces have been mobilized", assured Governor Denis Pasler.

Videos posted on social media showed many homes under brown water, and elderly people in particular being helped by rescuers dressed in orange life jackets. According to an initial estimate from the Ministry of Construction, the cost of damage to homes could reach "more than 21 billion rubles", or around 2.1 billion’ euros at the current rate

Faced with the situation, the regional authorities have already announced that the city's schools will teach "remotely". Earlier on Sunday, the services of the regional governor, Denis Pasler, had warned that "heavy rainfall" were expected in the coming hours, which could "complicate" more the task of rescuers.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in total, more than 60 localities are threatened by rising waters.

"A natural disaster"

According to regional authorities, the dam in Orsk, which partially failed two days ago, is designed for a level of the Urals, the region's great river, of 5.5 meters, compared to more than 9 meters currently thanks to the melting snow. The mayor of Orenburg, a large city located further west and crossed by the Ural River, also sounded the alarm.

"The situation remains critical. The water is arriving and, in the days to come, its level will only increase", wrote Sergei Salmin on Telegram, specifying also that the’ Ural had risen by 28 centimeters the day before. The official warned the population that in the event of a power outage at home, residents must leave "immediately" their home.

In the city, where 400 houses have already been flooded according to regional authorities, the "peak" of the flood is expected on Wednesday, according to a representative of the federal meteorological agency, quoted by the state news agency TASS.

These significant floods also affect neighboring Kazakhstan, where Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev deplored on Saturday "a natural disaster", "perhaps the largest, in terms of scale and consequences, of the last 80 years".