NEARLY 900 KILLED OR MISSING IN ETHIOPIAN FLOODS AS DEATH TOLL SOARS

by Abraham Fisseha Wed Aug 16, 2:50 PM ET

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - The death toll from devastating floods in southwest Ethiopia soared to 364, police said, bringing to almost 900 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 170 bodies today, the death toll has now reached 364," 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 194 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 876.

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.