The death toll from overnight flash floods has risen to 107, with hundreds of others still missing after several hundreds of homes were swept away in north and northwestern Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, Pajhwok reported.
Triggered by heavy downpours, the floods wreaked havoc in northern Jawzjan, Sar-i-Pul, northwestern Faryab and western Badghis provinces late Thursday, causing unprecedented human and material losses and displacing thousands of families.
Jawzjan police chief Brig. Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani told Pajhwok Afghan News the floods claimed the lives of 55 people, with over hundred others still missing in Khwaja Dokoh, Qoush Tipa, Darzab and other districts and parts of the provincial capital of Shiberghan.
Shiberghan Mayor Eng. Mohammad Hassan said relief supplies had been dispatched to flood-hit areas but more assistance was direly needed. Hundreds of people were left homeless and several hundred others remain missing.
Eng. Aziz-u-Rehman, the provincial Natural Disasters Management Authority head, said hundreds of marooned families were evacuated to safety by Afghan National Army (ANA)'s helicopters. He said 2,000 families had been displaced and thousands of cattle perished by the floods, which damaged standing crops on thousands of acres of land.
He said they were assessing the damage and the number of homes destroyed by the floods could increase.
Floods also wreaked havoc in Sar-i-Pul province, causing human and material losses, the Natural Disasters Management Authority head, Syed Fazlullah, said. He said the death toll from the floods had risen to 14 in the province.
He informed thousands of cattle had been washed away and crops on thousands of acres of land submerged.
Police chief Gen. Azizur Rehman said nine people died in the floods, but feared the death toll could climb.
In Faryab, 30 people lost their lives to the natural disaster and seven others had been missing as the flooding comprehensively destroyed 500 homes, according to Eng. Abdul Wahab, the provincial Natural Disasters Management Authority head. So far 500 houses in low-lying areas had been completely damaged, he said.
Officials in Badghis confirmed the death of eight family members because of heavy rains and hailstorm.
Abdul Hamid Mubariz, Natural Disasters Management Authority head in the west, said children and women were among those killed.