عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Russia, Kazakhstan Battle Record Floods as Rivers Rise Further

An aerial photo taken with a drone shows the flooded residential area of the outskirts of Orenburg, Orenburg region, Russia, 10 April 2024. EPA/STRINGER
An aerial photo taken with a drone shows the flooded residential area of the outskirts of Orenburg, Orenburg region, Russia, 10 April 2024. EPA/STRINGER
TT
TT

Russia, Kazakhstan Battle Record Floods as Rivers Rise Further

An aerial photo taken with a drone shows the flooded residential area of the outskirts of Orenburg, Orenburg region, Russia, 10 April 2024. EPA/STRINGER
An aerial photo taken with a drone shows the flooded residential area of the outskirts of Orenburg, Orenburg region, Russia, 10 April 2024. EPA/STRINGER

The Russian city of Orenburg battled rising water levels on Thursday after major rivers across Russia and Kazakhstan burst their banks in the worst flooding seen in the areas in nearly a century.
The deluge of meltwater has forced over 110,000 people from their homes in Russia's Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan as major rivers such as the Ural, which flows through Kazakhstan into the Caspian, overwhelmed embankments, Reuters reported.
Residents in the city of Orenburg said the waters of the Ural rose very swiftly and to far beyond breaking point, forcing them to flee with just their children, pets and a few belongings.
"It came very quickly at night," Taisiya, 71, told Reuters in Orenburg, a city of 550,000 about 1,200 km (750 miles) east of Moscow. "By the time I got ready, I couldn't get out."
Whole areas of the city were underwater, and the Ural rose another 32 cm (13 inches) to 10.54 meters (34.6 ft), 124 cm (49 inches) above the level considered by local authorities as safe. Officials warned the river would rise further.
The flooding has struck Russia's Urals and the northern Kazakhstan worst, though waters are also rising southern parts of Western Siberia, the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world, and in some places near the Volga, Europe's biggest river.
Water levels were also rising in Siberia's Tomsk, which sits on the Tom River, a tributary of the Ob, and in Kurgan, which straddles the Tobol river.
After the Ural burst through dam embankments in Orsk, upstream from Orenburg, on Friday, some residents expressed anger over how local officials had handled the situation, demanding greater compensation and begging for help from President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin said Putin was being updated regularly on the situation but had no current plans to visit the area while emergency services tried to deal with rising waters.
In Orenburg, some residents expressed disappointment that local officials had not done enough to prepare for the annual snow melt.
"There is a lot of excitement, indignation and strong emotions that I understand and share," Orenburg Mayor Sergei Salmin said. "The issue of receiving compensation and the procedure for processing payments is one of the main ones."
SNOW MELT
Spring flooding is a usual part of life across Russia - which has an area equal to the United States and Australia combined - as the heavy winter snows melt, swelling some of mighty rivers of Russia and Central Asia.
This year, though, a combination of factors triggered unusually severe flooding, according to emergency workers.
They said soils were waterlogged before winter and then was frozen under deep snow falls which melted very fast in rising spring temperatures and heavy rains.
Climate researchers have long warned that rising temperatures could increase the incidence of extreme weather events, and that heavily forested Russia is of major importance in the global climate equation.
In Kurgan, a region which straddles the Tobol river, water levels rose in Zverinogolovkoye beyond the critical 10 meter (33 foot) mark, said Governor Vadim Shumkov who was shown visiting evacuated families.
Kazakhstan has been badly hit.
The emergencies ministry said on Thursday morning that the number of evacuees stood at over 97,000, unchanged from Wednesday, and a state of emergency remained in effect in eight regions of the country.
Emergency workers have removed 8.8 million cubic meters (310 million cubic feet) of water from flooded areas, the ministry said. The Kazakh government also said movement was restricted on hundreds of kilometers of roads in the Aktobe, Akmola, Atyrau, Kostanai, Mangistau and North Kazakhstan regions.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

California’s Largest Wildfire Explodes in Size as Fires Rage across US West

A column of flame burns on a hillside during the Park Fire near Lomo, Calif., Friday, July 26, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
A column of flame burns on a hillside during the Park Fire near Lomo, Calif., Friday, July 26, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
TT
TT

California’s Largest Wildfire Explodes in Size as Fires Rage across US West

A column of flame burns on a hillside during the Park Fire near Lomo, Calif., Friday, July 26, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
A column of flame burns on a hillside during the Park Fire near Lomo, Calif., Friday, July 26, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

California's largest active fire exploded in size on Friday evening, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to meet the danger.

The Park Fire's intensity and dramatic spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the monstrous Camp Fire, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.

More than 130 structures have been destroyed by this fire so far, and thousands more are threatened as evacuations were ordered in four counties — Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta. It stood at 374 square miles (967 square kilometers) on Friday night and was moving quickly north and east after igniting Wednesday when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then calmly blended in with others fleeing the scene.

"There’s a tremendous amount of fuel out there and it’s going to continue with this rapid pace," Cal Fire incident commander Billy See said at a briefing. He said the fire was advancing up to 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) an hour on Friday afternoon.

Officials at Lassen Volcanic National Park evacuated staff from Mineral, a community of about 120 people where the park headquarters are located, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.

Communities elsewhere in the US West and Canada were under siege Friday, from a fast-moving blaze sparked by lightning sent people fleeing on fire-ringed roads in rural Idaho to a new blaze that was causing evacuations in eastern Washington.

In eastern Oregon, a pilot was found dead in a small air tanker plane that crashed while fighting one of the many wildfires spreading across several Western states.

More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the US on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.

The fire in eastern Washington was threatening homes, the railroad, Interstate 90 and the community of Tyler, which was evacuated Friday. The Columbia Basin fire in Spokane County closed part of Highway 904 between the interstate and Cheney. Multiple planes, helicopters and fire personnel were working hard to contain the fire, according to the Washington State Patrol.

In Chico, California, Carli Parker is one of hundreds who fled their homes as the Park Fire pushed close. Parker decided to leave her Forest Ranch residence with her family when the fire began burning across the street. She has previously been forced out of two homes by fire, and she said she had little hope that her residence would remain unscathed.

"I think I felt like I was in danger because the police had come to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their vehicle after telling us that we need to self-evacuate and they wouldn’t come back," said Parker, a mother of five.

Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the blaze and held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said. There was no reply to an email to the district attorney asking whether the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.

Fire crews were making progress on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, said Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. Most of the 1,000 residents evacuated by the lightning-sparked Gold Complex fires were returning home Friday. Some crews were peeling off to help battle the Park Fire.

"As evidenced by the (Park) fire to the West, some of these fires are just absolutely exploding and burning at rates of spread that it is just hard to even imagine," Tim Hike, Forest Service incident commander of the Gold Complex fire about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Reno, said Friday. "The fire does not look that bad right up until it does. And then that just might be too late."

Forest Ranch evacuee Sherry Alpers, fled with her 12 small dogs and made the decision to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning that animals would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after learning the dogs would be kept in cages, since her dogs have always roamed free at her home.

Alpers said she doesn’t know whether the fire spared her home or not, but she said that as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn't care about the material things.

"I’m kind of worried, but not that much," she said. "If it’s gone, it’s gone."

Brian Bowles was also staying in his car outside the shelter with his dog Diamon. He said he doesn't know if his mobile home is still standing.

Bowles said he only has a $100 gift card he received from United Way, which handed them out to evacuees.

"Now the question is, do I get a motel room and comfortable for one night? Or do I put gas in the car and sleep in here?" he said. "Tough choice."

In Oregon, a Grant County Search and Rescue team on Friday morning located a small single-engine air tanker that had disappeared while fighting the 219-square-mile (567 square kilometers) Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. The pilot died, said Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark. No one else was aboard the bureau-contracted aircraft when it went down in steep, forested terrain.

The most damage so far has been to the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.

In Idaho, lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires and the evacuation of multiple communities. The fires were burning on about 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) Friday afternoon.

Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of roaring fires, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which breeds salmon.

There’s no estimate yet on the number of buildings burned in Idaho, nor is there information about damage to urban communities, officials said Friday morning.

Oregon still has the biggest active blaze in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire to burn nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers). It remains unpredictable and was only 20% contained Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.

The National Interagency Fire Center said more than 27,000 fires have burned more than 5,800 square miles (15,000 square kilometers) in the US this year, and in Canada, more than 8,000 square miles (22,800 square kilometers) have burned in more than 3,700 fires so far, according to its National Wildland Fire Situation Report issued Wednesday.