Dam breaks in Orsk, evacuation underway
MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry is evacuating residents from the possible flood area in Orsk, Orenburg region, as a result of a dam break, the ministry press service said on Friday.
"The group of Russian Emergency Situations Ministry rescuers has been reinforced in Orsk due to the dam break. Door-to-door visits are taking place for preventive purposes, residents are being evacuated from the possible flood area to temporary accommodation facilities," the statement said.
The meeting point for evacuation is Krainaya Street.
Rescuers are working with municipal services to reinforce the dam and deal with the break's aftermath. Two frontal loaders and four trucks with soil are being used.
The press service for the Orenburg region's governor told Interfax this dam is "piled, it protects the road, the roadway to change the movement of the river."
"This piled part in the Stary Gorod area has burst. A private sector is located there, it is flooded regularly. People were invited to evacuate beforehand, some were preventively evacuated in the afternoon, evacuation is underway," the press service said.
The governor's press service said earlier on Friday that 1,825 residential buildings and 5,242 household plots had been flooded in the region's 95 populated areas. A total of 3,095 people, including 721 children, have been evacuated.
Orenburg region governor Denis Pasler is currently in Orsk, the second-largest city in the region, where dam reinforcement work is currently underway.
As reported earlier, a state of emergency was declared in the whole of the Orenburg region because of the flood.
An additional rescue team was dispatched to the region on Friday, and Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Ilya Denisov has arrived at the scene.
Orsk is a city in the Orenburg region. It has a population of some 200,000 people. It is located approximately 300 kilometers east of Orenburg, not far from the Kazakh border. The Ural River and the river Or, which flows into it, flow through the city.
The Stary Gorod neighborhood is located in the Sovetsky district of Orsk, on the left bank of the Ural east of the place where the Or flows into it. One, two and three-story houses (built in the 1930s) and modern cottages are mainly located there.