Helicopters aid snowbound Afghans

PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan - In an endless sea of white, Afghan villagers waited on rooftops Friday, waving in desperation as helicopters swooped low over the avalanche-struck region. All around them, homes, people and livestock had vanished under the snow.

The avalanche in this impoverished corner of Afghanistan killed at least 168 people last week, with dozens succumbing to plummeting temperatures elsewhere. The depth of despair was captured by an Associated Press team traveling on one of the first aid flights to the area.

Army helicopters dropped bags filled with bread - the first food to reach hundreds of people in the far northern district of Paryan in Panjshir province, 60 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul.

As the helicopters touched down, whipping up clouds of powdered snow, men rushed forward for food, water and blankets while women watched from rooftops. Yellow plastic jerry cans of cooking oil, sacks of rice, and rolled-up blankets were passed from man to man.

On the return flights, the copters took the injured to an international hospital in the southern reaches of the valley.

Nasar Khan, from Dara district, said his wife and four daughters were killed Tuesday when the snow crushed his roof and destroyed his house.

"My two sons rushed from another house to get us out, and only I survived," he said through tears from his hospital bed.

Najibullah Haidery, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said the scale of the disaster was staggering. Many among those who survived "managed to flee from their destroyed homes and buried villages, and now they have nothing," he told the AP.

After days of severe weather across the central and northeastern provinces, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Friday that 229 people have died in 18 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, with hundreds more left homeless.

Many more are cut off from help with roads blocked by deep snow, UNOCHA said.

Extremely cold temperatures were expected in many parts of the country in the coming days, and officials said harsh conditions and lack of machinery were hampering efforts to reach those who are trapped or injured. The army and some international agencies were delivering food, medicine, clothing and shelters to some of the hardest-hit areas, including far northern Badakhshan and Panjshir in the northeast.

Afghanistan has suffered through some three decades of war since the Soviet invasion in 1979. But natural disasters such as landslides, floods and avalanches have also taken a heavy toll on a country with little infrastructure or development outside of its major cities. Environmental degradation has worsened the problem in the north.

In northern Panjshir, those who escaped from homes buried by snow were stranded on rooftops. On one roof, a cow stood along with several people. In Paryan district, entire villages were almost invisible from the air.