What has been an otherwise mild winter for Afghanistan took a violent turn early this week when a series of avalanches buried over 100 rural homes in northeastern Afghanistan, about one hundred kilometers northeast of Afghinstan’s capital, Kabul. Many people were buried, and rescue efforts are being made but with little success.

 

Around 124 people were killed in the avalanches, according to a local emergency official. The deputy director of the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority, Mohammad Aslam Syas, says that the deadly snow hit four northeast provinces and buried over 100 homes. Snowstorms started over the affected area on Tuesday, making rescue efforts that much harder. Downed trees are blocking roads and the snow itself is one meter deep in some places.

 

A local man afflicted by the tragedy says, “People there have told me that two of my relatives have been killed and eight others are still under the snow…My son and I are trying to get through to see if we can help find their bodies. But it will take us at least three or four hours to get there because of the snow and the road is very narrow, so we have to walk, the car can’t get through.”

 

Natural disasters like this have been a problem for this country where there is very rudimentary infrastructure outside of the major cities. In 2012 a landslide killed seventy one people and just last spring in May another landslide killed anywhere between 250 and 2,700 people, according to official statements at that time.