About 4,000 households are at risk of flooding after a dike on the Ural River broke in the city of Orsk in Russia's Orenburg region on April 5.
Thousands of people are in danger after a dike burst in Russia. Photo: Russian Emergency Situations Ministry
The incident, which occurred near the old town of Orsk on the south bank of the river, forced many people to evacuate.
Earlier in the day, two leaks were also discovered in the city's eastern embankment. Maintenance crews were dispatched to repair the damage. Local authorities also warned residents to collect documents and essential belongings and move to temporary accommodation centers.
The Ork city area has been hit by heavy rain and flooding in recent days as the Ural River near Orsk is nearly a meter higher than normal. More than 100 roads and 47 bridges have been closed due to rising water.
Local authorities blamed the flooding on a combination of factors, including a sharp rise in temperatures that melted snow from the Urals. The flow of water from the Iriklinsky reservoir, which controls the river, reportedly broke all records at 2,150 cubic metres per second – although that was still not enough to cope with the inflow of 2,533 cubic metres per second.
As of April 5, about 1,100 residential buildings and 3,734 individual houses in 57 settlements across 23 municipalities in the region had been affected by floodwaters and 1,663 people had been evacuated – including 421 children.
Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry has dispatched two aircraft with special equipment and more than 100 personnel to Orsk to help mitigate the threat. The equipment includes 20 boats and a pumping station capable of pumping up to 350 liters of water per second.
Orsk is the second largest city in the region, located near the Russian border with Kazakhstan. Founded in 1735, the city was originally called Orenburg.
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