Homes flooded after Ural River rises quickly in Russia’s Orenburg

More than 300 homes were flooded in the Russian city of Orenburg after the Ural River rose half a metre beyond its bursting point, officials said on Wednesday, as swiftly melting snow from the Ural Mountains triggered the worst flooding in decades.
The deluge of meltwater overwhelmed swathes of the Ural Mountains, western Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, prompting the order to evacuate more than 100,000 people by late Wednesday.
Authorities said the situation was dangerous at Orenburg, where water levels in the Ural River, Europe’s third-longest, had risen 50 centimetres (20 inches) by early Wednesday, just hours after hitting the critical level of 9.3 metres late on Tuesday.