Floods caused by rising waters from the Urals destroyed a dam in a town near the Russia-Kazakhstan border, forcing some 2,000 people to evacuate, local authorities said.
MOSCOW — Floods caused by rising waters in the Urals destroyed a dam in a town near the Russia-Kazakhstan border, forcing some 2,000 people to evacuate, local authorities said.
The dam broke Friday evening in the town of Orsk in the Orenburg region, less than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of the border, according to Orsk Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. On Saturday morning, more than 2,400 residential buildings in this city of 200,000 inhabitants were flooded and power was cut in several areas. Evacuation efforts continue.
Images from Orsk showed water covering streets dotted with one-story houses.
According to local authorities, the dam could withstand water levels of up to 5.5 meters (nearly 18 feet). On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 9.3 meters (30.51 feet) and was rising, Kozupitsa said.
Authorities also said floods had hit other localities in the region, located in the Ural Mountains, prompting the evacuation of nearly 4,000 people. It was not clear whether the 2,000 people already evacuated in Orsk were included in this figure.
The Ural River, approximately 2,428 kilometers (1,509 miles) long, flows from the southern part of the Urals to the northern tip of the Caspian Sea, passing through Russia and Kazakhstan.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation to investigate alleged violations of construction safety rules and negligence that could have caused the dam to fail.
ABC News
