ORENBURG, April 10. /TASS/. Over the past day, floodwaters receded from 257 houses in the flood-hit city of Orsk in Russia’s southern Urals, the city administration told TASS.

As of late Wednesday, a total of 6,500 houses remain inundated in 15 settlements of Orsk.

The Russian Hydrometeorological Center reported that starting from 6:00 a.m. Moscow time (3:00 a.m. GMT), water levels of the Urals River near the city have declined by 24 cm (13.4 inches), to 880 cm (28 feet 10 inches). For this area, water levels are considered dangerous when they cross the seven-meter mark.

Flood situation in Orsk

Despite a relatively small population of less than 200,000 inhabitants, Orsk in southern Urals is among Russia’s ten largest cities by area. The city incorporates several settlements with low-rise housing, and some of them have been reporting minor floods since early April.

When a dam in the city burst last week, floodwaters rushed into the Stary Gorod (Old Town) microdistrict of Orsk, home to around 11,000 people. The area was flooded almost completely, with the exception of a few houses and a church, located on top of a hill. Over the next few days, the dam continued to give way, with new holes emerging in it.

The flood peaked on Tuesday, April 9, and water started to recede. On Wednesday, floodwaters in the Old Town receded by more than a meter.

The new section of the city, located on a hill on the Ural River’s right bank was also partially inundated in the early hours of Saturday, when another dam, around two kilometers upstream from the first one, also gave way. Within a few hours, water reached the settlements of Nikel, Stroitelei and Rabochy.

The partial collapse of a dam in Orsk, second largest city of Russia’s Orenburg Region, occurred in two places on the night of April 6. Another breach took place on the evening of the same day. According to latest reports, around 12,800 houses have been flooded in the entire Orenburg Region. A total of 7,703 people were displaced, and 1,513 are now staying at emergency shelters.

The Russian construction ministry estimates damage, inflicted to the region’s housing sector, at more than 21 billion rubles ($227 million at the current exchange rate).