Residents of the Ural Mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan near the Ural and Tobol rivers have been forced to evacuate.
The Russian city of Orenburg has been declared a disaster area and over 10,000 homes have been flooded.
Worst in over 70 years
According to local officials, the rivers have risen by just over a meter in a few hours, reports Reuters. The news agency calls it the worst flooding in the area in at least 70 years.
Official channels say that the Ural River was built to withstand a water level of 5.5 meters. On Wednesday morning, 9.6 meters was reported from Orenburg.
– I call for caution and for those in flooded districts to evacuate immediately, regional governor Denis Pasler wrote on Telegram.
During Friday, the amount of water caused an embankment dam in the city of Orsk to burst. The Russian news agency Tass writes that this caused hundreds of people to gather outside the local government and demonstrate.
“Shame on you” can be heard being chanted on videos that are spreading on social media.
The oil refinery declared during Wednesday’s “force majeure” on fuel supply.
Rodents are blamed
In the video, the affected Orsk residents can be heard complaining about the lack of supplies:
– We have no water. They could easily fix something temporarily. When Crimea became Russian, they fixed water pipes there, but here they don’t do that. Should we break away from Russia to get help? Everyone else gets help except ourselves, say frustrated residents on videos from the scene.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the weather report looks unfavorable, that the water continues to rise and that the water masses are moving towards more regions. Putin must be kept informed of the situation.
In total, 100,000 have been evacuated in the area in the last two weeks. There are no reports of deaths or injuries.
Sergej Komarov, head of the construction company behind the dam in Orsk, tells the Russian Pervij channel that the reason behind the dam collapse is rodents.