Tragedy strikes Dire Dawa

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

How sad. Dire Dawa is one of my favorite cities.


(SomaliNet) The latest report indicates that a total of 250 deaths have been confirmed from Ethiopia's worst ever flash floods which occurred early this week, PeopleÂ’s Daily reported.

The death toll has been rising almost every day as the search for the missing bodies went on.The number of dead bodies is expected to rise as crews searched for more bodies.

The search from the flooding that hit Dire Dawa, about 310 miles east of the capital, Addis Ababa, has stretched for nearly 20 miles along the river.

An Ethiopian Police spokesman, Binyam Fikru reported that the floods were blamed for 250 deaths.

"This is the worst flood that we have ever recorded," Fikru said. "We are no longer looking for survivors. We are now concentrating on finding dead bodies," he said.

More than 600 rescuers are doing the search who are using earth movers and their bare hands to dig through mud and debris after the deluge, which washed away people, cars, trees and entire buildings.

The floods occurred when a river burst its banks following torrential rains leaving more than 10,000 people homeless and 300 remained missing.

Consequently, The United Nations has released food aid for 10,000 people, and other agencies have provided blankets, clean water and other supplies. Some flood victims were sheltered in schools, while others remained where their former houses once stood, U.N. officials said.