RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service

Situation Update No. 1

Posted:2010-03-12, 08:00:29 [UTC]

Ref.no.: AC-20100312-25291-KAZ

Situation Update No. 1
On 2010-03-12 at 09:32:26 [UTC]

Event: Technological Disaster
Location: Kazakhstan Almatinskaya Oblast Distric t of Aksuisky

Number of Evacuated: 3000 person(s)

Heavy rain and melting snow have caused severe floods across a region of Kazakhstan neighboring China, flooding villages and claiming lives, emergency officials said Friday. Southern Kazakhstan was affected by unusually intense snowfalls this winter and fast-rising temperatures are now causing massive flooding and mudslides across the region. The Emergency Services Ministry said a dam at the Kyzyl-Agash reservoir in the eastern Almaty region ruptured Thursday, pouring water into a nearby village and affecting 3,000 residents. "There are deaths, but identities and the number has yet to be confirmed," the ministry said in a statement. Russian news agency RIA-Novosti cited an Emergency Services Ministry press officer as saying around 20 people are believed to be missing. Officials says residents in the affected Aksu district have been notified of the danger and are being evacuated in buses sent from the regional capital, Taldykorgan. In another part of the same region, heavy rain and thawing snow eroded a levee in the village of Zhylbulak, flooding 140 households and affecting 820 people. Emergency workers say people are being evacuated from their homes in Zhylbulak to a local high school building. Elderly people and children have been taken to Taldykorgan, emergency officials said. Major railroads and highway bridges across the country have also been washed away, causing severe disruptions. The Emergency Services Ministry said it is deploying all necessary measures to deal with the disaster and carry out emergency repairs in the aftermath of the floods. Hundreds of homes are destroyed annually by destructive floods in Kazakhstan during heavy rains and as snow begins to thaw in the early spring. In an unrelated incident, emergency officials are combing a remote region in northeastern Kazakhstan in search of a missing helicopter with eight people on board. The Emergency Ministry said there has been no contact with the airborne medical rescue helicopter since early Thursday afternoon.