Floods grip Russia's Kurgan region as Tobol River rises

FILE PHOTO: A view from a helicopter shows a flooded area in the Kurgan Region, Russia, in this still image taken from video released April 9, 2024. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia warned people to evacuate parts of the Urals city of Kurgan as the mighty Tobol River swelled with meltwater and burst its banks, submerging swathes of Russia and Kazakhstan and forcing tens of thousands to abandon their homes.

Artist Nikolai Kryuchkov stands on the roof of his flooded house in Orenburg, Russia, April 13, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Reshetnikov

Russia’s southern Ural region and northern Kazakhstan have been grappling with the worst flooding in living memory after very large snow falls melted swiftly amid heavy rain over land which was already waterlogged before winter.

Rescuers take local residents by boat to visit their apartment in a flooded residential area in Orsk, Orenburg region, Russia April 13, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Flooding is expected to peak on Monday in Russia’s Kurgan, a region of 800,000 people at the confluence of the Ural mountains and Siberia, as the Tobol River rose to 6.31 metres (over 20 ft) in the main city, Kurgan.

Kurgan Governor Vadim Shumkov said there was almost a “sea” of water approaching.

“The city of Kurgan itself will be next,” Shumkov said. “The flow of the Tobol is accelerating. The water level in it is constantly rising.”

“Fellow countrymen, leave the flooded areas immediately.”

Shumkov warned that flooding would beging shortly on the right bank of the Tobol, which slices the region south to north, and the low part of its left bank.

More than 7,100 people were evacuated on Sunday from several hundred residential buildings that had been flooded, state news agency RIA said, citing Russia’s emergency ministry, as the waters threatened 62 settlements and 4,300 homes.

In neighbouring Kazakhstan, where more than 111,000 have been evacuated since floods began last month, waters submerged more than 1,000 additional homes in the city of Petropavlovsk on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people.

A drone view shows a flooded area around the Dubki residential complex in Orenburg, Russia, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

The Tobol, a tributary of the Irtysh, rose 23 cm (9 inches) in the four hours to 6 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, regional authorities said.

Floods were also inundating homes in the Tomsk region in the southwestern part of Siberia, regional officials said on Telegram.

A drone view shows a flooded residential area in Orsk, in Orenburg Region, Russia April 13, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

Almost 140 houses near the city of Tomsk, which is the regional administrative centre, were under water on Monday and 84 people were evacuated.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Lisbon, Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Michael Perry)