Afghanistan officials say that the death toll in the Friday landslides has topped 2,100 and could climb even higher.
Government officials say that the most tragic part of the entire event happened in the second landslide. A government spokesman said that 600 people who showed up to help those trapped in the first landslide died when they were buried in a second landslide.
Rescuers say that the area is still very unstable and that rescue workers and residents still in the area are at risk for another landslide. However, families have been saved from the landslide.
“Around 700 families were rescued,” Afghan National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Sayed Abdullah Homayun Dehqan said while adding that they are still short of the necessary supplies to expand rescues.
NATO’s Regional Command is organizing troops to help with the rescue efforts.
At least 350 people are dead after a landslide buried an entire village in northeast Afghanistan.
United Nations officials say that at least 300 homes were completely buried and over 2,000 people are missing in the landslide. They anticipate the death toll to rise significantly in the next week.
Badakhshan province Governor Waliullah Adeeb said that days of heavy rain were the cause of the slide. He said that rescuers know there are survivors under the slide but they are unable to reach them because they don’t have enough equipment or machinery.
They’ve begged people around the country to at least send shovels for rescuers to dig manually for people they believe are still alive.
The area is in a part of the heavily rugged mountains of Afghanistan where they are subjected to avalanches on a regular basis rather than landslides.
As a state official says residents of the area struck by a massive landslide on Saturday knew of the “high risk” of being killed in that way, rescue workers recovered 2 bodies and found the locations of 8 more victims.
The total of the missing is now listed at 150.
The Washington Army National Guard and FEMA arrived Tuesday to join the recovery efforts using specially trained dogs and sonar to search the area. The additional searchers came as local government officials did a flip-flop on their public stance regarding the disaster.
Initially, officials had said the slide was unforeseen and “came out of nowhere.” The same officials changed their story Wednesday.
“This entire year we have pushed message after message that there’s a high risk of landslides,” John Pennington, director of Snohomish County Emergency Management told reporters. “The dangers and the risks are known.”
Rescuers on site have told reporters that the work is going very slowly because the ground is “like quicksand.” Local fire chief Travis Hots said some of his crew could only go 50 feet in a five minute time frame because of the soft ground.
Washington state officials confirmed the death toll in Saturday’s massive landslide has risen to 14. The number of people reported missing has risen from 108 to 174.
“The 176 I believe very strongly is not going to be a number that we’re going to see in fatalities, I think it’s going to drop dramatically,” Snohomish County emergency management director John Pennington said. Pennington added he believes there are duplicate names on the list that have yet to be weeded out.
Officials also announced a suspension of search-and-rescue efforts after fears were raised that there could be another shifting of the earth at the site. However, several search teams using hovercraft, air support and sonar devices are continuing to search the site.
A closer examination of the site showed that 47 home sites were destroyed in the slide. Officials say at least 25 of the homes were occupied full time.
Family members of the missing were gathering at a Red Cross shelter. Reed Miller, whose son Joseph was inside a mobile home that was caught in the landslide, says he’s been calling his son’s cell phone for days without a response.
A major earthquake struck western Greece on Sunday afternoon.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck around 3:55 p.m. local time. The quake was centered about 12 miles below the town Lixouri on the island of Kefalonia. At least a dozen aftershocks of 3.5 or higher on the Richter scale have continued to shake the region.
Officials say that no one was killed in the quake but that many suffered minor to moderate injuries from objects falling in their homes. Some roads and highways had to be closed for cracked pavement or large rocks from landslides caused by the quake.
Local Greek websites are showing pictures of moderate to severe damage to old buildings around the epicenter of the quake. Residents of the areas closest to the epicenter were told by government officials to abandon damaged buildings overnight in the event of major aftershocks.
Tropical Storm Manuel slammed Mexico’s Pacific coast on Sunday while Hurricane Ingrid brought heavy rain and landslides to the other side of the nation as authorities say at least 19 people have died.
Government officials are evacuating thousands. Continue reading →
Typhoon Soulik has hit China with winds of at least 74 mph causing the Chinese government to launch emergency response plans.
Over 300,000 residents of the Fujian Province have been forced to evacuate their homes amid the winds, floods and landslides. Flights have been canceled and train service suspended throughout the region. Continue reading →
Fourth-graders on a fossil hunt to mark the end of school ended up experiencing a horrific tragedy when one of their classmates was buried in a landslide. Continue reading →
Heavy rains drove flooding and landslides that have killed 36 people this month and left more than 52,000 people out of their homes.
Two children were killed Wednesday as they slept when a flood of mud and water engulfed their home. Rescue workers at the scene are trying to recover the bodies. Several other homes were destroyed in the landslide in the village of Olutrot in Narok county. Continue reading →
Torrential rains in Angola caused flash flooding that has left at least nine people dead and others missing.
Landslides also forced closure of roads making it hard for emergency personnel to reach damaged areas. One of the major roads near the country’s seaport was closed by a slide. Continue reading →