In Russia And Kazakhstan, The Worst Is Yet To Come As Flooding Intensifies

In western Kazakhstan, homes in Qulsary, a town in the center of the Zhylyoi District in the Atyrau region, are nearly submerged by the floodwaters on April 11.

Heavy rains and a rapid rise in temperatures causing a massive snowmelt continue to create "difficult" conditions in northern Kazakhstan and in southern Russia, with rivers bursting their banks amid forecasts that the worst may be yet to come.

 

Exclusive RFE/RL drone video captured the village of Bersiev, which has been almost completely submerged, with only 18 out of 236 houses still habitable.

A state of emergency was declared in 10 out of 17 regions of the country, according to TASS.

Horses relax on dry ground in Qulsary.

The spring floods have forced around 100,000 people from their homes in Kazakhstan with more evacuations expected.

 

Roosters and hens stand above the muck following the flooding in the village of Bersiev.

While spring flooding is common across large parts of the border region between Kazakhstan and Russia, this year's floods are the worst in decades.






 

A couple in Orenburg, Russia, observe the floodwaters surrounding the Europe-Asia Monument, which denotes the border between Europe and Asia.

"Difficult days are still ahead," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on April 9. "There is a lot of water coming."



 

Men use boats to deliver food in Orenburg, a city of some 550,000 people located about 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow where more than 2,500 homes were flooded.



 

A woman takes a photo of floodwaters behind a rubber dam in Orenburg as water levels on the Ural River reached 11.29 meters, up from 10.87 meters on April 11, a record high.

 

Almost 12,000 homes and 16 state medical facilities were flooded across the Orenburg region, its governor Denis Pasler told Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 11 as officials scrambled to help homeowners displaced by the floodwaters.

A drone view shows a truck driving along a flooded street in the settlement of Zarechnoye, in the Orenburg region.

 

A wider aerial view of the floodwaters around Zarechnoye.

Authorities warned that water levels in the nearby Ural River would remain “critical” over the weekend before gradually receding early next week.