Floods in Russia: nearly 4,500 residents evacuated after dam rupture in the Ural region
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
Nearly 4,500 people, including 1,100 children, were evacuated from a flooded area following a dam failure in Russia’s Orenburg region in the Urals. The Russian government on Sunday April 7 described the situation as “critical” in the city of Orsk, which has more than 200,000 inhabitants.
The rupture of a dam in this locality, very close to the border with Kazakhstan, caused rising water levels on Friday, aggravated by significant disturbances and the melting of ice, a common phenomenon at this time of year in many Russian regions. In Orsk, more than 6,600 houses were flooded and 400 in the city of Orenburg, capital of the eponymous region.
While “floods in the Orenburg region have not yet slowed down”, According to local authorities, heavy rainfall is expected in the area in the coming hours, which could “complicate” more the task of rescuers.
These bad weather also affect Kazakhstan, a country bordering Russia, where the Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, deplored on Saturday “a natural disaster”, “perhaps the biggest, in terms of scale and consequences, of the last 80 years.”
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