Warming causes first floods in eastern Kazakhstan

First floods have been registered in East-Kazakhstan oblast this year, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of the oblast's Interior Department. The regional rescuers are battling the disaster and saving people from water and snow. “While some people were still getting blocked by snow drifts at the oblast's roads Ust-Kamenogorsk city (in eastern Kazakhstan) was experiencing a thaw with temperature going sharply up. According to the Emergency Situation Department, first floods have been registered in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Residents of Krassina village are unable to cope with the disaster themselves. Flood water has got into their yards. Employees of the Emergency Situations Department and teams from Oskemen-Tartip and Oskemen-SpetsKommunTrans are cleaning up Yugo-Vistochnaya, Chernyakhovskiy, Pushkin and Poltavskaya streets,” the Emergency Situations Department report. During the weekend the emergency teams rescued around 115 people from oblast's roads. Most of the people were blocked in their cars; passengers of two buses were evacuated as well. The Emergency Situations Department of East-Kazakhstan oblast reminded that avalanche threat remained high in mountainous areas. 10 avalanches brought down over 13.5 thousand cubic meters of snow spontaneously during this weekend. The department recommended the residents to reаrain from going outside cities and villages. Earlier the regional Emergency Situations Department reported that floods related to intensive warming and fast snow melting could threaten 157 villages with the total population of over 80 thousand people.