Yahoo TV

STORY: Floods engulfed cities across Russia and Kazakhstan on Wednesday after Europe’s third-longest river burst its banks on Wednesday… swamping parts of the Russian city of Orenburg and forcing over a hundred thousand people to evacuate.

That included Valentin and Evgenia Perednya, forced to steer a motorboat through the streets.

They sent their children to a parents' house out of town but stayed behind to protect their home from looters:

"We have no police, no security guards, no one here. We are guarding our homes and neighbouring plots by our own efforts. Where can you go? Nowhere."

Rapidly-melting snow has swelled major rivers including the Ural, which runs through Orenburg towards the Caspian sea.

Climate Science professor at Reading University Maria Shahgedanova said the unusual floods may be explained not only by heavy snow this last winter - but also the speed of the melt possibly due to climate change.

“Snow started melting very rapidly because temperatures were rising very rapidly and within basically days temperatures went from zero and to 17-18 and even 20 degrees. And that's what caused a very very rapid snowmelt."

Russian officials said it is the worst flooding in Orenburg since records began. Russian news agencies quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying 38 tons of aid - food, drugs and other necessities - had been flown into the region.

Kazakhstan has said nearly a hundred thousand people had been evacuated from flooding within its borders.

Russia said over 10 thousand houses were flooded across 37 regions, most in the Orenburg Oblast.

Upstream on the Ural, which flows into Kazakhstan, floodwaters burst an embankment dam in the city of Orsk last Friday.