IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: Flash floods displace 1,200 people in Samangan
26 May 2008


KABUL, 26 May 2008 (IRIN) - Flash floods have displaced about 200 
families (roughly 1,200 individuals) in the Hazrat Sultan district of 
Samangan Province in northern Afghanistan. The families urgently need 
food and shelter, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).

"Heavy summer rainfall caused two separate floods in Hazrat Sultan 
district on Sunday afternoon, which completely destroyed 26 houses, 
partly damaged more than 100 houses and killed dozens of animals. No 
human casualties were reported," Mohammad Zahir Hamidi, provincial head 
of ARCS, told IRIN from Samangan on 26 May.

"We will provide the displaced families with tents and kitchen kits. We 
asked the World Food Programme [WFP] to send food items," added Hamidi.

WFP said it will send a team from Kabul to assess the needs of the 
displaced families on 27 May. "After we get the result of the 
assessment, we will send food items to the affected families," Ebadullah 
Ebadi, a WFP spokesman, told IRIN in Kabul.

The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) in Kabul 
said that 190 families had fled their houses to a hill near their 
village where some stayed overnight. Others were accommodated by nearby 
villagers or went back to their partly damaged houses after the flood 
waters receded.

Meanwhile, the ARCS office in Samangan has warned of the possibility of 
more rain in the area. "We need urgent assistance because the displaced 
families are so vulnerable now and more floods would cause further 
damage [and suffering]," Hamidi said.

In February, a national emergency commission - made up of several 
government bodies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - warned 
that 21 out of the country's 34 provinces, including Samangan, were 
"vulnerable" to spring floods, which usually start in March and last 
until May.

A spell of floods and landslides caused by heavy rains killed dozens of 
people and damaged thousands of homes across Afghanistan in 2007, 
according to Afghanistan's National Disasters Management Authority 
(ANDMA).

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