Floods affect almost 14,500 homes in the Russian region bordering Kazakhstan

MOSCOW (AP) — Nearly 14,500 homes have been flooded in a Russian region bordering Kazakhstan after the level of a local river rose dramatically, local authorities said Tuesday.

Flooding prompted the evacuation of thousands of people in the Orenburg region, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Moscow, after a dam on the Ural River burst last week due to water pressure.

The river level has been fluctuating in different parts of the region, affecting homes in the area.

Experts have listed several possible causes of the floods: the melting of a large amount of snow in the area, the freezing of the ground that prevents the absorption of rain or melted snow, and the enormous release of water from the Iriklinksy reservoir into the Ural River , in the eastern part of the region.

Local authorities have classified the situation as an emergency of federal significance, and more than 16,500 people have been evacuated from flooded areas, the Orenburg governor’s office reported Tuesday.

In the city of Orenburg, the region’s capital, around 5,500 homes remained flooded despite the gradual reduction of levels of the Ural River in the city, according to authorities. The situation is more serious in the southwest of the region, near the border with Kazakhstan, where authorities said the river has reached a dangerous level in the town of Ilek.

Further east along the border, floods also hit the Kurgan and Tyumen regions after the levels of local rivers rose. Russian emergency officials said Tuesday that more than 300 homes have been flooded in the Kurgan region. Evacuations of flooded areas are being carried out in both provinces.

In neighboring Kazakhstan, massive flooding has prompted the evacuation of more than 113,000 people so far, emergency officials there said. As of Tuesday, more than 5,700 homes remained flooded.