Photo: Sergei Puzyrev/TASS
MOSCOW, April 6 /TASS/. A piece of an embankment broke through in the Old Town of Orsk in the Orenburg Region dams and the flood affected approximately 4,200 homes and nearly 11,000 people throughout the region. The emergency did not claim any casualties.
At 10:30 Moscow time, operational services told TASS news agency that the Orsk dam was unable to contain the flow of water and the dam had completely collapsed. Later, however, the press service of the regional government told TASS that the information about the complete destruction of the Orsk dam did not correspond to reality and that the flow at one of the two points of damage to the dam had been eliminated.
Authorities say the water level continues to rise and the situation could worsen.
What happened
- The dam breach was first reported on 5 April at around 20:30 Moscow time.
- According to Orsk's chief representative, Vasili Kozupitsa, the dam's body was partially damaged in two places.
- The water level in the Ural River in the Orenburg region was two metres higher than safe, reaching 9.27 metres. Within hours, the water rose by four metres in some places and continued to rise. At the same time, the intensity of the rise in the water level decreased.
- Kozupitsa noted that the situation could quickly deteriorate.
Victims and consequences
- The floods affected 4,258 homes and 10,987 local residents. In the whole Orenburg region (except Orsk) 556 houses were flooded. There were no casualties as a result of the dam breach and no one sought medical assistance.
- 4,208 people (including 1,019 children) have been evacuated and 495 temporary accommodation centres for 82,200 people are being prepared for deployment.
- During the floods, 47 bridges and 106 road sections were closed in 31 districts of the region.
- Electricity supply has been interrupted in 12 settlements and will not be restored by the end of the flood.
What's happening in Orsk
- In Orsk, Orenburg region, more than 2,400 residential buildings and over 3,000 adjacent areas were flooded.
- The entire residential sector of the Old Town micro-district in Orsk may be flooded in the near future, and the city leadership has called on residents to evacuate quickly.
- The city's water supply has been reduced by a third: the pressure in the pipes has been reduced to maintain the equipment - part of it is flooded and cannot be remotely lowered.
- Residents of the city are being evacuated from houses located in the flood zone, 711 people have been evacuated so far, 210 of them children.
Remediation
- According to preliminary estimates, the water will leave Orsk within more than two weeks.
- Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations Ilya Denisov arrived on the scene.
- There are 1112 rescuers and 462 units of equipment working in the Orenburg region, of which more than 530 specialists, 125 units of equipment and 75 water vessels are operating in Orsk. More than 200 police officers are also deployed in the flood zone.
TASS/gnews.cz-RoZ_07
https://tass.com/emergencies/1771437
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