Russian and Kazakh authorities say water continued to rise in some of the regions hit by major flooding. In Petropavlovsk, capital of the North Kazakhstan region, the peak should arrive in the next 24 hours.
More than 107,000 people have already been evacuated in Kazakhstan, some of whom were then able to return home. In western Siberia, residents of two additional villages began to be temporarily relocated due to the flooding of the Ishim River, according to the authorities.. Major floods are caused by heavy rains associated with rising temperatures, increased snowmelt and the breakup of winter ice covering rivers. The level of the Tobol River is rising, and “it started to rain, which causes an additional influx of water,” explained Vadim Shumkov, the governor of Russia’s Kurgan region. “Why did it come to this? Nobody did anything for 60 years,’ said another resident, Alexander Kouprakov, accusing the Kazakh government of having made “no investment” in the area.