More than 100,000 people moved from their homes as deluge overwhelms scores of settlements
Flood barriers are constructed in the settlement of Zarechny in northern Kazakhstan , close to the border with Russia, on Wednesday. Photograph: Evgeniy Lukyanov/AFP via Getty Images Floods engulfed cities and towns across Russia and Kazakhstan on Wednesday after Europe’s third-longest river burst its banks, forcing about 110,000 people to leave their homes and swamping parts of the Russian city of Orenburg.
Whole areas of the city were under water. Residents in Orenburg paddled along roads that now resembled rivers and waters lapped at the windows of traditional wooden houses.Great American eclipse leaves millions in awe as darkness descends The flood situation was acute in parts of Western Siberia, the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world, where the peak is expected in three to five days, and some areas around the Volga, Europe’s largest river, the emergencies ministry said.
Russia said 10,500 houses were flooded across 37 regions, most in the Orenburg region. Upstream on the Ural, which flows into Kazakhstan, floodwaters burst through an embankment dam in the city of Orsk on Friday. Pope Francis expressed his sympathy for the victims. “I ... want to convey to the people of Kazakhstan my spiritual closeness at this time, when a massive flood has affected many regions of the country and caused the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes,” he said during his Wednesday weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.Spring flooding is a usual part of life across Russia as the harsh winter snows melt, swelling some of mighty rivers of Russia and Central Asia.
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