(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his emergency minister to the Orenburg-region city of Orsk, where an oil refinery halted operations and thousands of people were evacuated due to major flooding.
Authorities in Russia ordered evacuations from parts of the city after an embankment dam burst on Friday, adding to existing flooding in the region after recent torrential rains.
Tens of thousands of people have been relocated in neighboring Kazakhstan as well in what was called the worst natural disaster in decades. Heavy rains have swamped the Ural mountains and nearby regions, including parts of Siberia, this month.
Alexander Kurenkov, the head of Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations, described the situation as “critical” and said that more than 4,500 residential buildings had been flooded, Interfax news agency reported on Sunday. He proposed classifying the flood as a federal emergency, according to Tass.
Orsk's oil refinery halted operations due to rising water levels, the facility's operators said on Telegram. The refinery, which belongs to Forteinvest, has a production capacity of almost 6 million tons a year and produces gasoline and diesels for domestic and export markets, according to its website.
Almost 11,000 people live in the affected areas of Orsk, Interfax reported, citing city authorities. The dam broke after recent downpours, according to local officials and Russia's emergency services.
Russia declared a state of emergency in the Orenburg region last week after days of unrelenting rains. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the area.
Orsk lies about 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) east of Moscow. No injuries or deaths have been reported. The city of about 200,000 lies on the banks of the Ural and Or Rivers. The embankment dam was constructed about a decade ago.
Floods are also advancing in Barnaul, the capital of the Altai territory in western Siberia, authorities said.
Kazakhstan has evacuated nearly 64,000 people from the flood zone, according to the emergency services ministry. Thousands of private homes and various buildings remain flooded in the Aktobe, Kostanay, Pavlodar, Akmola, Atyrau, and North Kazakhstan regions, Akipress reported.
Addressing the nation on Saturday, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the floods were “ perhaps the largest disaster in terms of scale and impact in the last 80-plus years.”
(Updates with details on emergency minister visit, refinery halt)
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