Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in Russia and at least 100 thousand in Kazakhstan due to the storms and resulting floods caused by the swelling of the Ural river, the third largest in Europe.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and hundreds more are added every hour, from the city of Orenburgin the Urals region of Russia, not far from the border with Kazakhstan, in an area hit in the last week by storms and consequent floods. In some places the water level overflowed Ural River it reached 11.7 metres, more than 40 centimeters more than yesterday and more than two meters more than the previous record of 1942. In Orsk, a recently built dam that was supposed to protect the city gave way in several places leading to major flooding.
Water levels are also rising rapidly in another Russian region – Kurgan – while in neighboring Kazakhstan authorities said at least 100,000 people have been evacuated so far.
Orenburg seen from above
“We are like Noah’s Ark”
“Everything is flooded, everything is lost, everything,” Orenburg resident Dmitry Dragoshantsev told the Reuters news agency, while another, interviewed on board a speedboat, added: “Judging by the water level, all the furniture is destroyed. It will cost a colossal sum of money.” Yesterday the authorities of the Orenburg region had already received 200 thousand requests for immediate assistance, but the payments given ranged only from 20 thousand rubles (201 euros) in cash to 50,000 rubles to compensate for the loss of property.
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Also affected by the flood was an animal shelter, which attempted to take care of over 350 stray and domestic animals abandoned by their fleeing owners. “We are like Noah’s Ark,” shelter director Yulia Babenko told the Reuters news agency.
The main cause of the flood is climate change
Behind the floods that are affecting a large portion of Russia and Kazakhstan there is above all the climate change. Last week, in fact, several rivers, including the Ural, the third largest in Europe, broke their banks due to high seasonal temperatures, which led to the rapid melting of snow and ice on the peaks of the Ural Mountains; the heavy rains of the last few days have then contributed to worsening the situation.
