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Flooding spreads in Russia, thousands told to evacuate

STORY: Flood sirens blared in Russian cities on Tuesday (April 9) as over a hundred thousand people in both Russia and Kazakhstan were ordered to evacuate.In some of the worst flooding in 70 years, swiftly melting snow across the Ural mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan has swelled major rivers, some rising by meters in hours to the highest levels ever recorded.The Ural River, Europe's third largest, burst through an embankment dam on Friday flooding the city of Orsk just south of the Ural Mountains.Downstream, water levels in Orenburg, a city of around half a million, were rising with peak levels expected on Wednesday (April 10).As the Tobol river rises, people in the city of Kurgan have been warned to evacuate immediately and Governor Vadim Shumkov urged residents to take the warnings seriously.The wider region is home to around 800,000, with water levels in some parts of the Tobol rising 29 inches in just two hours. More than 19,000 people are risk in Kurgan, the TASS news agency reported.Emergencies were declared in Orenburg, Kurgan and Tyumen, a major oil producing region of Western Siberia.President Vladimir Putin has been monitoring the floods from Moscow, but anger boiled over in Orsk when at least 100 Russians begged the Kremlin chief to help and chanted "shame on you" at local officials who they said had done too little.The head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, flew to Orenburg region on Tuesday to monitor the situation after being tasked to do so by Putin, the ministry said.The ministry added preventative measures are being taken and rescue teams have been strengthened.It was not immediately clear why the annual snow melt had made this year's floods so bad.Scientists say climate change has made flooding more frequent worldwide.