How Orsk is trying to cope with the flood

In Orsk, due to a dam break, almost 5 thousand houses were in the flood zone. The evacuation continues in the city; the Investigative Committee has opened a case of negligence. The main thing about the situation in the flooded city is in the RBC material.

What happens in Orsk on the second day after the flood begins

Residential areas of Orsk, the second most populous city in the Orenburg region, began to flood with water after a protective dam along the Ural River broke on the night of April 6. Throughout Sunday, April 7, residents of the New City district adjacent to Gagarin Square were evacuated in Orsk, an RBC correspondent reports. Previously, only blocks of the Old City district were flooded, but the water level rose rapidly, and on the night of April 7, water partially flooded Gagarin Square. The operational headquarters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations was deployed at the edge of the square , and an ambulance was also on duty there.

In the evening, a threat of flooding was announced in the area between Vyazemskaya and Kramatorskaya streets. The area from which the evacuation was announced is closely adjacent to the beginning of the main street of Orsk - Lenin Avenue. The situation is complicated by the rains that have been falling in Orsk for the second day.

From early morning, rescue teams received a list of addresses where people were waiting to be evacuated, left on boats and took people to safety. Many took their pets with them - dogs, cats, parrots, guinea pigs. Some refused to evacuate, despite the fact that the water rose to the first floors of apartment buildings, flooding the entrances. They decided to wait for the water to recede, although Roshydromet had not yet predicted a decrease in its level. According to the service, on April 8, flood waters will reach Orenburg, and on April 10, the flood will peak in the regional center.

The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, who arrived in the city on April 6, called the situation in Orsk critical. In total, as of mid-day on April 7, 4,518 residential buildings and 4,587 household plots were flooded in Orsk; more than 4 thousand people, including 885 children, were evacuated from flooded areas, the minister said.

To receive victims, the authorities organized 11 temporary accommodation centers with more than 8 thousand beds. As of mid-day Sunday, 1,052 people were accommodated in the temporary temporary accommodation facility, the press service of the government of the Orenburg region reported. Six adults and three children were hospitalized, their condition was not alarming, the Ministry of Health said .

Due to the flood and the decline in the quality of tap water, the demand for bottled water has sharply increased, said the mayor of the city, Vasily Kozupitsa. According to him, the additional 400 tons of water of 1.5 and 5 liters that went on sale are not enough. He said that the mayor's office is helping food chains with purchases. Volunteers in Orsk also distributed water over the weekend.

Against the backdrop of flooding in several areas, demand for the most popular goods in grocery stores in Orsk has increased sharply. An RBC correspondent visited the stores of two federal chains, as well as local stores on the morning of April 7. In all of them there is practically no chicken, bread, there is some milk, in addition, there was no still bottled water anywhere. In the evening of the same day, these goods were also not available in the same stores, with the exception of chicken in one of the stores.

A resident of Orsk told RBC that there were food shortages the day before. According to her, at nine in the morning on Saturday she was still able to buy everything she needed, but by noon, when she returned to the store, there were no more products.

According to sellers, goods that are currently in high demand are delivered to them regularly, but people are snapping them up. Two stores reported that bottled water was delivered to them today, but it was sold out very quickly. The next delivery is expected only in a day.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that federal networks “are involved in the prompt delivery of additional volumes of necessary products to regions affected by floods, mainly to the Orenburg region.” For example, the supply of drinking water, according to the department, has been increased several times.

The regional prosecutor's office issued 48 warnings about the inadmissibility of inflating food prices both in Orsk and in other regional cities.

“The supply of water to Orsk stores has been increased fourfold; today more than 40 tons of water were delivered (that is, more than 4 thousand liters per store). The company provided almost the same volume of water as humanitarian aid. Within 24 hours we will deliver another 216 tons of water to stores. Bread orders were also increased several times, manufacturers confirmed increased supply volumes,” the press service of the X5 Group (which manages the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Chizhik retail chains) said on the evening of April 7.

In the flooded areas, the authorities cut off electricity; due to the network settings, there was no electricity in some unaffected areas of the city. All schools will operate remotely from Monday.

The state of emergency that operates in the Orenburg region due to floods was given federal status on Sunday.

The population of Orsk is about 189 thousand people. The first fortress on the site of the future city was founded in 1735. During Soviet times, the city was a major industrial center, but after the collapse of the USSR, many industries closed.

In May 2022, the Orsk Refrigerator Plant reopened, and a mechanical plant producing medium and large-sized artillery shells is operating.

In the Oktyabrsky district in the north-east of the city, the Orsky Oil Refinery is located - the largest asset of ForteInvest; the enterprise includes about 30 production facilities. The plant's production capacity is 6 million tons of petroleum products. This is the only oil refinery in the Orenburg region and one of the largest in Russia. On April 7, Orsknefteorgsintez announced the suspension of refinery operations due to flooding.

Why did the dam burst?

The first areas to be affected by the dam break (in at least two places) were the Old Town and Leninsky districts. The protective dam was put into operation in 2010; the authorities decided to build it after several floods. However, as the prosecutor's office of the Orenburg region reported, Rostechnadzor authorities identified violations in the maintenance of the structure. In March of this year, the prosecutor's office sent a warning to the first deputy head of Orsk (the prosecutor's office did not disclose his last name) about the inadmissibility of violating the legislation on the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies.

The regional prosecutor's office attributed the dam's failure to its improper maintenance. The prosecutor of the Orenburg region, Ruslan Medvedev, sent a resolution to the investigative authorities to resolve the issue of criminal prosecution of the perpetrators under Art. 216 of the Criminal Code (violation of safety rules during construction and other work), as well as under Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (negligence). On April 6, the regional department of the Investigative Committee announced the initiation of a criminal case under these two articles.

The structure was not designed for the load that led to the accident, noted the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler. “Such a flood is rather an exception,” he wrote in his telegram channel. The dam, according to the design documentation, is designed for a level of the Urals of 5.5 m, and on April 6 the water level in the river was 9.6 m.

On April 3, Mayor Kozupica inspected the dam together with local residents. “People have no fear that they might be flooded. We remembered the times when Orsk experienced floods without a dam. Then the flood drowned houses on Naberezhnaya Street. Now there is no such threat,” he wrote in his Telegram channel. This year's flood, in his estimation, was to be the first and serious test of the dam's strength.

Liability for the dam was insured by  SOGAZ , and the company is ready to begin payments after an investigation and recognition of the incident as an insured event, the company said in a message received by RBC. For damage caused to property, payments will amount to up to 750 thousand per person, legal entities can receive up to 1 million rubles. Damage caused as a result of violation of living conditions will be compensated in the amount of up to 350 thousand rubles.

According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Construction, the damage caused to infrastructure as a result of the flood is about 21 billion rubles, and the preliminary damage caused to the agricultural sector is 65 million rubles.

When can the situation return to normal?

Regional authorities were warned of flooding. On April 3, Governor Pasler reported on the measures taken to President Vladimir Putin. Then he noted that, although the peak of the flood had not yet passed, in some areas the situation was tense. He explained this both by a sharp melting of snow and by an increase in water discharge from reservoirs in neighboring regions and Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, with which the Orenburg region has more than 1,800 km of common border, record floods are also being reported.

Governor Pasler calls the current flood “the heaviest in the entire history of observations in the Orenburg region.” Based on forecasts from Roshydromet, the authorities of the Orenburg region expect the flood to peak in the coming days, and the situation to stabilize after April 20, the press service of the regional governor reported.

“Already on April 8, the flood in Orenburg will reach dangerous levels; a peak is expected on April 10. In the flooding zone are Orenburg and the Orenburg region. <...> Stabilization of the situation in the region is expected after April 20,” the message says.

The head of Roshydromet, Igor Shumakov, warned on Sunday of a “disappointing forecast” for the Tyumen region: “On  April 15-16, we expect the unfavorable level to be exceeded along the entire length of the Ishim River in the Tyumen region. By April 20, dangerous levels will be reached.” The peak of the flood, he said, is expected on April 23-25 , and “this will exceed historical maximums by 1.5-4.4 m.”