Russia battles floods as rivers burst

ORENBURG, Russia — The Russian city of Orenburg battled rising water levels on Thursday after major rivers across Russia and Kazakhstan burst their banks in the worst flooding seen in the areas in nearly a century.

The deluge of meltwater has forced more than 110,000 people from their homes in Russia's Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan as major rivers such as the Ural, which flows through Kazakhstan into the Caspian, overwhelmed embankments.

Orenburg residents said the waters of the Ural rose very swiftly and to far beyond breaking point, forcing them to flee with just their children, pets and a few belongings.

"It came very quickly at night," Taisiya, 71, told Reuters in Orenburg, a city of 550,000 about 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow. "By the time I got ready, I couldn't get out."

Whole areas of the city were underwater, and the Ural rose another 32 centimeters to 10.82 meters, far above the level considered by local authorities as safe. Officials said the peak should be reached in Orenburg on Thursday.

The flooding has struck Russia's Urals and northern Kazakhstan worst, though waters are also rising in southern parts of Western Siberia, the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world, and in some places near the Volga, Europe's longest river.

The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin would hold a meeting with Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov and the governors of Orenburg, Kurgan and Tyumen, the worst affected regions. The Kremlin said Putin was devoting a significant part of his day to the floods.

Snow melt

Spring flooding is a usual part of life across Russia as the heavy winter snow melts, swelling some of the mighty rivers of Russia and Central Asia.

But this year, a combination of factors triggered unusually severe flooding, emergency workers said.

Soils were waterlogged before winter and were then frozen under deep snowfalls that melted very fast in rising spring temperatures and heavy rains.

Climate researchers have long warned that rising temperatures could increase the incidence of extreme weather events, and that heavily forested Russia is of major importance in the global climate equation.

In Kurgan, a region that straddles the Tobol River, water levels rose in Zverinogolovkoye beyond the 10-meter mark, said Governor Vadim Shumkov who was shown visiting evacuated families.

Kazakhstan has also been badly battered.

The Ministry for Emergency Situations said on Thursday that the number of evacuees stood at more than 98,000 and a state of emergency remained in effect in eight regions of the country.

Emergency workers have removed 8.8 million cubic meters of water from flooded areas, the ministry said. The Kazakh government also said movement was restricted on hundreds of kilometers of roads in the Aktobe, Akmola, Atyrau, Kostanai, Mangistau and North Kazakhstan regions.

Agencies Via Xinhua