Flash floods kill at least 20 in western Afghanistan

Kabul - Afghan aid agencies and NATO troops on Wednesday rushed relief supplies to western Afghanistan, where flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 20 people, officials said.

The flooding began in the western provinces of Herat and Ghor on Tuesday, said Ahmad Shekib Hamraz, an official with the Afghan National Disaster Management Commission.

Thirty people were also injured in flooding 100 kilometers east of Herat City, while the "number missing is still unknown," the NATO alliance said in a statement, quoting initial reports by local authorities.

Hamraz said that at least one person was also killed in Ghor, while hundreds of houses were destroyed.

Several roads linking the remote areas to provincial capitals were washed away by the floods, making it more difficult for authorities to transports supplies and rescue teams to the region.

Afghan and NATO officials conducted an aerial survey of Herat's flooded Obeh area, while 200 blankets, five tons of food and 20,000 bottles of water were transported by military helicopters to the area, NATO said.

Similar flooding was also reported in the northern provinces of Balkh and Samangan, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/322150,flash-floods-kill-at-least-20-in-western-afghanistan.html.