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Record Floods in Russia's Urals Triggered by Melting Snow

Police officers stand guarding an area as people use rubber boats in a flooded street after part of a dam burst, in Orsk, Russia. (Anatoly Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House via AP)
Police officers stand guarding an area as people use rubber boats in a flooded street after part of a dam burst, in Orsk, Russia. (Anatoly Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House via AP)
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Record Floods in Russia's Urals Triggered by Melting Snow

Police officers stand guarding an area as people use rubber boats in a flooded street after part of a dam burst, in Orsk, Russia. (Anatoly Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House via AP)
Police officers stand guarding an area as people use rubber boats in a flooded street after part of a dam burst, in Orsk, Russia. (Anatoly Zhdanov/Kommersant Publishing House via AP)

Swiftly melting snow triggered the worst recorded flooding in Russia's Ural Mountains, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes as some of Europe's biggest rivers swelled to bursting point.
Russia declared an emergency in the Orenburg region near Kazakhstan after the Ural River, Europe's third longest river, swelled several meters in hours on Friday, and burst through a dam embankment in the city of Orsk.
The river, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, will reach dangerous levels on Monday in Orenburg, a city of 500,000 down river from Orsk, and the peak is expected there on April 10, Russia's emergency ministry said, according to Reuters.
More than 10,400 homes across Russia have been flooded, with the Urals, Siberia, the Volga and central regions the worst hit, according to the ministry.
"An increase in air temperatures, active snow melt and river openings are predicted," Russia's emergency ministry said. "More than 10,400 residential buildings remain flooded in 39 regions."
Footage from Orsk, 1,800 km (1,100 miles) east of Moscow, showed one man wading through flood water which reached his neck. He held his keys in his mouth and a black cat above his head.
The streets were submerged in water with residents and emergency workers using boats move around the city.
The mayor of Orenburg, Sergei Salmin, said the Ural River was expected to break the previous record of 9.46 meters. It is currently 8.72 meters.
"Absolutely everyone who is in the flood zone needs to leave their homes," Salmin said. "Do not delay the evacuation! The situation will only get worse in the next two days."
President Vladimir Putin asked the government to form a special commission to deal with the flooding in Orenburg, Kurgan and Tyumen regions, the Kremlin said. Putin was being kept updated on the situation, the Kremlin said.

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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)

A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.
The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year, The Associated Press reported.
The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.
But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.
The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland's then-President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.
The Ähtäri Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some 8 million euros ($9 million) in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve.
The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.
The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ähtäri to solve its financial difficulties by, among things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements.
However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter into a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.
Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.