Shelter Overwhelmed with Large Numbers of Animals Rescued from Floods in Russia

The deserted streets of the flooded Russian city of Orenburg echoed with the sound of water pumps today, Friday, as residents heeded official warnings to evacuate the city. Orenburg, with a population of 550,000 located about 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow, is facing unprecedented flooding after the Ural River, the third longest river in Europe, overflowed its banks. Melting ice has already forced more than 120,000 people to evacuate their homes in the Ural Mountains region, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. This is the worst flooding the area has seen in nearly a century. The water level of the Ural River, which runs through Orenburg, rose to 11.43 meters on Friday, compared to 10.87 meters on Thursday. Orenburg's mayor, Sergey Salmen, described the situation as "critical." Footage from a drone showed many parts of the city transformed into a vast lake, with rooftops jutting out after at least 12,000 houses were flooded. For many families living in low-lying areas, there is little they can do to save their belongings. Volunteers from other Russian regions organized animal rescue operations, but Babinco noted that the shelter has not yet received much help from the authorities. Outside a now-abandoned medical clinic, the sound of a water pump rose, and furniture was stacked at a high place to protect it from water damage.