Floods in Russia and Kazakhstan: Water reaches record highs

In the city of Orenburg, which was hit hard by floods, the water level of the Ural River rose another nine centimeters overnight, reaching a historic high. “Early this morning the Urals near Orenburg reached 11.71 meters,” Governor Denis Basler said on his Telegram channel on Saturday. According to officials, another 800 houses and 1,800 gardens were inundated in the last 24 hours. In total, more than 3,000 houses were submerged in water in the city.

Orenburg residents. Build: Keystone

According to Bassler, the situation is tense at the moment, but it has recently been confirmed. The level has not risen in the last four hours. “We expect this to plateau: no further increase, the situation will stabilize, and then the decline will begin,” he wrote. Thousands of people fled their homes due to the floods.

The flooding was one of the worst in decades. Build: Keystone

People help evict the animals. Build: Keystone

A snowy winter has led to the worst flooding in decades in the Orenburg region, 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow. Before the regional capital, the large city of Orsk was already affected, where large parts of the old city were flooded by the Urals after the dam broke.

The 2,400-kilometer-long river, which geologists define as part of the border between Europe and Asia, flows south through Kazakhstan into the Caspian Sea. A flood warning has also been issued in Kazakhstan. About 100,000 people were evacuated there. (sda/dpa)