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Naryan-Mar hit by extreme flood

The Pechora River became a small ocean when an ice blockade caused a river flood.

Only centimetres separated the entire city centre of Naryan-Mar from being flooded by the Pechora river, as flooding season has reached extreme levels in Nenets this year. See photos from the flooded area.

Location

Nenets authorities has declared a state of emergency for the city of Naryan-Mar, as an ice blockage in the estuaries of the Pechora River has caused one of the biggest floods in the area for years.

In some critical hours on Monday morning the inhabitants of Naryan-Mar were on high alert when the water levels kept on rising.

“If the river had risen another 30 centimetres the entire city centre would have been harmed by the flood, causing far more damage”, says leader of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s Nenets office Andrey Vokuev to BarentsObserver.

The Pechora river rose to 6,4 meter above its normal level, while the critical level for the centre of Naryan-Mar is 6,7 meters above normal. The flood still ended up damaging 126 houses in the area, affecting 610 of the town’s inhabitants. 14 of the city’s houses also lost their hot water, as one of the municipal water boilers was damaged by the flood. However, no one is reported to be injured.

The ice blockage was situated in the Oskolkovo village and around the Aikherev Island, 35 km to the north of regional capitol of Naryan-Mar. The blockage has now been opened by the autorities and the water level in the river is sinking.