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Rescuers scour eastern Ethiopia for flood victims, 300 missing
Addis Ababa, Aug 7, 2006 Rescuers clawed through mud and debris with their hands, hoes and heavy equipment in eastern Ethiopia on Monday, searching for hundreds of people missing after deadly floods hit a provincial town. As relatives began identifying the at least 191 known victims of weekend flash flooding in and around Dire Dawa, police said some 300 people remained unaccounted with many feared drowned. "Family members have started burying the dead," said regional police Inspector Beniam Fikru. "In some cases, it is very difficult to identify them." "Relatives are reporting that around 300 people are missing, but the search goes on," he told AFP by phone from Dire Dawa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) Residents said they were using bare hands, garden tools, bulldozers and other earth moving equipment to dig through the rubble in search of buried bodies or people still alive. Aid workers said several thousand people were displaced by the waters from the swollen Dechatu River that broke its banks overnight Saturday, sweeping through Dire Dawa and nearby homesteads, killing many while they slept. They said the casualties were mainly women and children, who were unable to escape poorly constructed shacks along the banks of the river. The floods caused massive but as-yet unknown property damage, destroying hundreds of homes, trading stalls and cutting a key road linking the town to the capital, they said. In addition, the waters brought down electricity and telephone lines, further complicating rescue efforts in area in Ethiopia's lowlands that is prone to flooding during the June-to-September rainy season, they said. Last year, at least 200 people were killed and more than 260,000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region, flooding rivers that quickly drew swarms of man-eating crocodiles and forced survivors to cling to trees to escape. Over the last several years, flooding has affected large areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing millions of dollars of damage, particularly to agriculture. The floods follow a devastating drought that hit east Africa region, threatening the lives of about 15 million people in five countries, including Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia and Kenya. Ethiopia, a nation of about 70 million people, has repeatedly been ravaged by natural calamities, notably drought and famine. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
Sri Lanka resumes battle for water, French struggle to find killers
Colombo, Aug 7, 2006 Sri Lankan troops tried Monday to seize control of a disputed waterway after rejecting a rebel deal, officials said, as shocked French aid workers struggled to recover the bodies of 15 colleagues killed in the area. |
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