STORY: As floods engulfed large parts of central Russia, residents of one village ignored advice to flee their homes.
Instead, they built a homemade dike, a barrier similar to a dam that acts as a water blockade, to save their houses from record-high floods.
Drone footage shows the embankment had prevented floodwater from inundating homes.
Last week, authorities in Orenburg city called on thousands of residents to evacuate immediately due to rapidly rising flood waters.
A group of 20-30 locals here then started constructing the wall of earth, which now stretches for over 4,700 feet.
Ivan Chernomorets is one of them. He lives in Perovsky, near the city of Orenburg.
"As there was a small natural earthen terrace at this location, we started reinforcing it. In the beginning, we used the engineering machines you see behind my back, belonging to the local residents."
It was a race against time.
"As the water started rising we understood that we could not manage ourselves and started deploying engineering machinery that we rented. By that time, in two days the water level rose almost a meter. The residents of the village started joining in after seeing us at work."
Chernomorets said the children and the elderly - all those who could not get out on their own - were evacuated before the construction.
The disaster was caused after major rivers across Russia and Kazakhstan burst their banks due to a historic deluge of melting snow.
Several parts of Russia are also hit by the worst floods in living memory.
A top ally of President Vladimir Putin said regional authorities had fallen short in their forecasting and emergency response.
The water level in the city of Kurgan has exceeded the "dangerous" mark, state media reported on Wednesday (April 17), citing authorities.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, almost 117,000 people have been evacuated due to floods, according to the country's emergencies ministry.
