“All is lost”: in Russia, the population’s “nightmare” in the face of exceptional floods

Sitting in an inflatable boat, Oksana Altintchiourina holds her cat, "Rouquin", tightly wrapped in her arms. in a blue napkin. She has just gone à his home, in the Russian city of Orenburg, whose ground floor is "almost completely flooded".

“The furniture, the refrigerator, the washing machine, everything is floating”, laments this 38-year-old woman with dark red hair on Saturday.

Major floods have been sweeping several regions of southern Russia, as well as Kazakhstan, for days, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

Faced with the emergency, they are forced to leave a large part of their belongings at the mercy of water.

Oksana Altintchiourina sitting with her cat in an inflatable dinghy, April 13, 2024 in the Russian city of Orenburg hit by major floods © AFP – Olga MALTSEVA

Oksana Altintchiourina says she took the most important documents, passports, invoices or birth certificates. But “only that” was saved, and “nothing else”, she regrets.

“The furniture, the belongings, everything is lost”.

The water of the river, the Urals, also took one of her two cats, which drowned, she says. The second, Redhead, survived by taking refuge in the shelves of a cupboard.

– “No one helps us” –

Floods are caused by intense rain associated with rising temperatures and increased melting of snow and ice. According to scientists, global warming is favoring extreme weather events like heavy precipitation.

Iskander Rakhmatullin, a 61-year-old bulldozer operator, makes food on April 13, 2024 in a neighborhood in the Russian city of Orenburg hit by major flooding © AFP – Olga MALTSEVA

In Orenburg, the capital of the region of the same name in the Urals, this has made certain neighborhoods unrecognizable.

Only the roofs of the small individual houses protrude in places from brown water, as do the tops of the almost submerged street lamps, which no longer have anything to illuminate.

Under a gray sky, some travel in inflatable boats, negotiating as best they can the small rapids created by the overflow of the river.

A man, who has water up to his shoulders, trying to move forward among objects drained by the floods, large headphones on his ears and sunglasses on his nose.

Iskander Rakhmatoulline, a 61-year-old bulldozer operator, prepares a dish for his neighbors and himself.

“A hot meal when you come out of cold water, this will be useful,” he said. “We must help each other.”

A man at the window of his flooded house, April 13, 2024 in a district of the Russian city of Orenburg hit by major floods © AFP – Olga MALTSEVA

Others vent their anger towards the authorities, who they accuse of not helping them enough.

“All the machines, all the equipment, everything is in the water. Nobody helps us,” annoys Islam, a 25-year-old fruit seller.

His house, in the suburbs of Orenburg, is almost completely submerged and he struggles with his neighbors to save what can be saved using a boat.

“We rent the boat, for which we pay 5,000 rubles per day”, or around 50 euros, he explains.

A little further, Lioudmila Borodina, 56, feels like she's seeing her life's savings squandered.

“I saved every penny, I refused everything, all that for the house”, she said, sobs in her voice.

Aerial view of the Russian city of Orenburg hit by major floods, April 13, 2024 in a district © AFP – Andrey BORODULIN

“And now everything is flooded. It's a nightmare,” says this woman with short blond hair.

She claims to be “scared” because she fears finding her house “all damp” and that “everything will fall into ruin.”

“And there is no certainty that anyone will help us .”

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