MOSCOW (AP) — Nearly 14,500 homes have been flooded in a Russian region bordering Kazakhstan after water levels spiked in a local river, local authorities said Tuesday.
The floods sparked evacuations of thousands in the Orenburg region, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), southeast of the capital of Moscow after a dam on the Ural River burst last week under the pressure of surging waters. Local authorities have classified the deluge as an emergency of federal importance, and more than 16,500 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas, the office of the Orenburg governor said Tuesday.
In the city of Orenburg, the region’s capital, some 5,500 houses remain flooded as water levels in the Ural River in the city gradually decrease, according to officials. The situation is more dire in the southwest of the region near the Kazakh border, where authorities said the river there has risen to a dangerous level in the town of Ilek.
Further east along the border, floods also hit the regions of Kurgan and Tyumen after as water levels rose in local rivers. Russian emergency officials said Tuesday that over 300 homes have been flooded in the Kurgan region. In both the Kurgan and Tyumen provinces, evacuations from areas that may be flooded are underway.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, massive floods have prompted the evacuation of over 113,000 people to date, Kazakh emergency officials said. As of Tuesday, more than 5,700 houses remain flooded there, officials said.
The Associated Press
