2024-04-15 02:48:04
Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg called on thousands of residents to evacuate immediately, Friday, due to the rapid rise in flood waters after major rivers overflowed their banks due to a record deluge caused by melting snow.
Waters also rose sharply in another Russian region, Kurgan.
Orenburg Mayor Sergei Salmin called on residents in a statement via the Telegram messaging app in the morning to “urgently evacuate” as sirens sounded in the city, according to ABC News.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, authorities said that 100,000 people have been evacuated so far as rapidly rising temperatures led to the melting of heavy snow and ice.
The regional authorities called for a mass evacuation of parts of Orenburg, a city with a population of more than half a million people located 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow, according to Reuters.
Russian news agencies later quoted Orenburg officials as saying that more than 13,000 residents had been evacuated across the region, more than a quarter of whom were children.
Emergency workers said the water level in the Ural River had risen by more than two meters from what they considered a dangerous level.
Water poured down the windows of brick and wooden houses in the city, and pet dogs sat on rooftops.
Sergei Salmin, mayor of Orenburg, called on residents to take their documents, medicines, and basic supplies and leave their homes.
The village of Kamenskoye in the region was also evacuated on Friday morning after the water level there rose 1.4 meters overnight, Vadim Shumkov, governor of the Kurgan Regional District, said via the Telegram app.
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2024-04-15 02:48:04