{"id":432954,"date":"2026-07-22T09:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/?p=432954"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:17:46","slug":"afghans-search-for-dozens-missing-after-devastating-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/2026\/07\/22\/432954.html","title":{"rendered":"Afghans search for dozens missing after devastating flood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" data-id=\"432955\" src=\"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-432955\" srcset=\"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood-340x191.jpg 340w, https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/afghanistan-flood-390x220.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>PARUN, Afghanistan: Rescuers were struggling to reach residents trapped under mud and boulders in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, after a major flood smashed through one province, killing at least 23 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around 100 people are unaccounted for, the national disaster agency and the provincial governor&#8217;s office said, also updating the death toll from Monday&#8217;s deluge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An AFP journalist saw dozens of people gathered in remote Parun, the capital of Nuristan province, using wooden poles and their bare hands to search for the missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Farid Gul Zaheer, a 34-year-old pharmacist, said he had &#8220;never witnessed such a dangerous flood&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It felt like there was an earthquake, and I heard children and people screaming,&#8221; he told AFP, after getting injured while trying to flee up the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Tuesday, a bulldozer was of limited use in clearing some debris in Parun, where the flood had buried multiple shops and brought huge boulders that smashed into buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parun&#8217;s mayor and other government employees were among the missing, the governor&#8217;s office said on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zakirullah Zaki, manager of the Spogmai Hotel, said it felt like &#8220;an act of God struck us&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The rest of the hotels, markets, and shops were destroyed,&#8221; the 29-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Spogmai was still standing, surrounded by destruction, and the manager&#8217;s missing younger brother was found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8216;Traumatised&#8217; &#8211;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Juma Khan Nayel, communications chief for the Afghan Red Crescent Society, described a &#8220;devastating situation&#8221; with water rising to unprecedented levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They have deployed dozens of volunteers who are working by hand, using shovels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Right now, urgently, we are supplying some food, water and tents for those whose homes have been destroyed, he told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Afghanistan&#8217;s defence ministry said the military had been deployed to the area to support the relief effort, while the United Nations said it was assessing the disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zaheer, the pharmacist, said he had &#8220;lost everything&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Everyone is traumatised, they didn&#8217;t sleep all night,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The flooding and rain have also affected neighbouring Pakistan, where 12 people were killed according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa&#8217;s provincial disaster agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 200 people were killed in flooding and rain that hit Afghanistan and Pakistan between March and April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and flooding has increased, according to the head of the country&#8217;s environmental protection agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Environmental problems &#8220;have severely affected the Afghan people and have contributed to a humanitarian crisis in the country&#8221;, Mawlavi Mati-ul-Haq Khalis said this month.  <strong>(AFP) RSS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARUN, Afghanistan: Rescuers were struggling to reach residents trapped under mud and boulders in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, after a major flood smashed through one province, killing at least 23 people. Around 100 people are unaccounted for, the national disaster agency and the provincial governor&#8217;s office said, also updating the death toll from Monday&#8217;s deluge. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":432955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3,24,4,5,2],"tags":[],"reporter":[],"class_list":["post-432954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en-cover","category-english","category-international","category-en-news","category-top-stories","category-top-stories-main"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432958,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432954\/revisions\/432958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432954"},{"taxonomy":"reporter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter?post=432954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}