1000 killed or missing in Ethiopian floods as death toll soars
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday August 17, 2:50 AM
*1000 killed or missing in Ethiopian floods as death toll soars*
The death toll from devastating floods in southwest Ethiopia soared to
500, police said, bringing to almost 1,000 the number killed or missing
in raging waters nationwide this month.
Authorities said they feared for the worst and were preparing for the
possibility that several hundred more may have drowned in weekend
flooding in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's state.
"We are expecting the death toll to increase and we are preparing
ourselves for more bodies, maybe even hundreds more." regional police
spokesman Daniel Gezhegn told AFP shortly after the recovery of 170 more
bodies.
"With the discovery of 250 bodies today, the death toll has now reached
500," said Tegaye Mununhe, chief police inspector for Southern Omo
region, also warning the figure could rise.
"This is only bodies that have been physically recovered," he told AFP
by phone from the provincial town of Jinka, about 780 kilometres (490
miles) southwest of Addis Ababa.
The affected state appealed to the international community to help in
the search and rescue efforts, saying the magnitude of the disaster was
beyond its means.
"The area is so huge and completely flooded, making access completely
and hampering rescue efforts. We are trying to do everything we can but
the magnitude of the disaster is not something we can tackle by
ourselves," the region's head Shiferaw Shegute said.
"So we are appealing to the international community to help us in the
search and rescue efforts, with their experience, means and
instruments," he added, adding that trapped residents were shouting for
help when government officials overflew the disaster zone.
The new deaths nearly doubled the previous toll of 250 from the flooding
of the Omo River and its tributaries, which has submerged at least 14
villages, leaving up to 20,000 people stranded and without shelter.
Officials said poor weather continued to hamper relief operations,
preventing helicopters from landing and forcing emergency workers to
take to boats to provide assistance to those in need.
"We are doing all we can," said local administrator Kadaki Gezhegn. "We
have dispatched boats to these areas with food, medicine and tents,
rescuers, including swimmers and divers, to save lives and help those
stranded by water."
Said Muhei, a journalist who flew over flooded areas in a military
helicopter, said uncertainty over the depth of the water kept choppers
from landing in many places, but stressed the devastation appeared enormous.
"Flying over the area, one can only see a whole area covered with
water," he said in an interview with state radio. "You cannot see land
below and the roofs of houses and tops of trees.
"In areas where we could land, people have lost everything," he said.
The flooding in the south comes as heavy seasonal rains caused rivers to
burst their banks in the east, where 256 people were killed last week
and some 250 are still missing, and north, where at least six people
have died.
The nationwide total of flood-related dead and missing now stands at 1,000.
Meanwhile, the search for the 250 people still unaccounted for in the
eastern town of Dire Dawa continued apace as UN agencies and other
relief groups operated in the area, officials said.
More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been left homeless by the
flooding there, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Addis Ababa.
Humanitarian groups are struggling to deliver humanitarian supplies to
the thousands who are camped in schools and tents, fearing an increased
risk of outbreaks of disease.