Floods kill 3 in Russia, thousands evacuated after dam wall breaks in Dagestan

People are evacuated from a flood zone in Dagestan, Russia, on Sunday.

Photo: Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP A woman and her daughter died and 4,000 people had to be evacuated when a dam wall broke in Russia’s Dagestan republic in the south of the country following heavy rain, the Civil Protection Ministry reported on Monday.

Another person died in a landslide, authorities said.

Around 2,000 homes were flooded in the Derbent region on the Caspian Sea.

The bodies of the woman and her daughter, a child, were found, but other people remain missing.

Social media videos showed flooded villages and highways engulfed by water in the area in the Caucasus Mountains, with overturned cars lying on the roadside.

A multi-storey apartment building partly collapsed in the regional capital Makhachkala. “Water levels rose after heavy rain, leading to further flooding of streets and residential areas,” the ministry said.

Vehicles drive through a flooded street in southwestern Russia on April 1.

Photo: via dpa Some water filtration plants in the region had to be stopped due to power cuts, said the local authorities.

Video clips on social media showed entire buildings sinking beneath the water, along with a collapsed bridge on the Kavkaz route that is of strategic significance for the region.

Thousands of rescuers were continuing work as further heavy downpours were expected, the ministry said.

The regional authorities have set up emergency shelters, and helicopters are being used.

The ministry said that further rain could be expected in the region, with localised cloudbursts and winds gusting up to 120km per hour.

Further landslides could also be expected, it said.

Dagestan was hit with a previous major flood just last week that triggered widespread power cuts and forced authorities to announce a regional state of emergency.

Heavy rain has hit the Northern Caucasus region since the end of March.

Flooding of power substations has led to outages in almost 20 districts in Dagestan.

Flooding last week led to more than 3,300 people being evacuated, amid reports of 3,500 flooded homes.

At the time, authorities put damage at the equivalent of US$50 million, but the figure is now likely to be much higher.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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