200 Missing After Deadly Afghan Flood

Residents of four villages in northern Afghanistan were desperately trying to find missing relatives on June 8, two days after a flash flood washed away 2,000 houses, killed scores of people, and forced thousands to flee.

Afghan officials on June 7 said they’d recovered 75 bodies from the villages in the Guzargah-e-Nur district of Baghlan Province.

More than 200 residents remain missing after the June 6 flood.

There are fears that many are buried beneath the rubble of mud houses that collapsed when water surged through the area.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office says he ordered urgent assistance for flood-affected families in the province.

Emergency assistance -- including food, medicine, blankets, and tents -- was being delivered by helicopter because roads remained under water and unpassable.

Provincial authorities say they've beeen overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters