Floods ‘worst in decades’

WATER levels in overflowing rivers were still rising yesterday in swathes of Russia and Kazakhstan that have been hit by massive floods, as cities braced for a new peak in the southern Urals and western Siberia.

Both Astana and Moscow have called the floods the worst in decades, introducing a state of emergency as water covered entire cities and villages.

More than 90 000 people have been evacuated from the rising water – mostly in Kazakhstan. The Kremlin said the situation remains “difficult” in large parts of Russia but insisted that President Vladimir Putin has – so far – no plans to visit the zone.

The neighbours have pledged to co-operate on battling the floods.

“Since the beginning of the floods, more than 86000 people have been rescued and evacuated,” the Kazakh government said yesterday.

It said that 8472 of the evacuees were in temporary housing, with the rest believed to be in safe places in the community. Kazakhstan also said it had taken 81000 animals to safety. Five of the massive Central Asian country’s 17 regions were affected, with around six rivers rising fast.

Russia said it had evacuated more than 6 500 people, mostly in the Orenburg region. The Ural and Tobol rivers were rising fast – threatening the regional hub of Orenburg and the western Siberian city of Kurgan.

The Orenburg region has been the most hard-hit Russian area, with the Ural River already flooding the city of Orsk almost entirely. Orenburg is a city of 550 000 people near the Kazakh border and was bracing for the peak of the flood, expected today. Its mayor, Sergei Salmin, warned that the flooding would be “unprecedented”.

Authorities said the river had reached 9m deep in Orenburg – just 30cm away from “critical” levels.

Russian media published images of it approaching the city’s high-rise apartment blocks. Authorities have warned of forced evacuations in Orenburg if residents do not co-operate.

In Kurgan, a city of around 300 000 people near Kazakhstan, authorities yesterday said that 689 people have been evacuated away from the overflowing Tobol River. In one village in the Kurgan region, Zverinogolovsk, the water levels of the Tobol river rose 74cm in just two hours, Russian media reported.