2024-04-12 08:17:44
The rapid onset of spring heat and the melting of ice have caused rivers to overflow in the Ural Mountains and the Siberian region of Russia, as well as in neighboring Kazakhstan. A large river like the Ural (Zhayika), which flows through Kazakhstan and flows into the Caspian Sea, has burst its banks.
About 550,000 inhabitants of the city of Orenburg, which is located near the border of Kazakhstan, feel the floods particularly hard. There, the water level rose so rapidly that people were forced to leave their homes in a hurry with their children and pets, taking only a few of the most necessary things with them. Taisia, a 71-year-old resident of Orenburg, told the Reuters news agency that the flood came so quickly at night that by the time she was packing for evacuation, the area around her house was already flooded and she could not get out.
Currently, part of Orenburg is flooded, the water level in the Urals rose another 32 centimeters on Thursday, 124 centimeters above the level declared safe by the authorities. Local officials have warned that the water level will continue to rise. About 12,000 houses are said to have been flooded in the Orenburg region. As of April 4, a state of emergency has been established in the area. On April 5, in the city of Orsk, the Ural current broke through an earthen embankment, and the city was flooded. On the morning of April 11, the water level dropped by 42 centimeters, but almost six thousand houses are still under water, reports the Russian news agency TASS.
also rises in the southern rivers of Western Siberia and in the basin of Europe’s largest river, the Volga, as well as in the Oba’s tributary, the Tom, which flows through the Siberian city of Tomsk, and the Tobola river, which flows through Kurgan. In the Tyumen region, 63 settlements are threatened by floods, their peak is predicted on April 22 and 23.
Spring floods are common in the Urals and Western Siberia region. However, this year additional problems were caused by the fact that the rain before winter had thoroughly soaked the soil, which froze under a thick layer of snow. In the spring, the heat came quickly, which quickly melted the snow and thawed the wet soil.
2024-04-12 08:17:44