KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, June 8, 2014 (BSS/AFP) - Rescuers scrambled Sunday to deliver food and medical supplies to Afghan families marooned on mountaintops after flash floods killed 74 people in a remote northern district, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee.

The death toll was expected to rise, with scores of people
said to be missing in the mountainous district of Baghlan
province after torrential rains unleashed the floods on Friday.

The floods come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy
rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region.

The twin disasters highlight the challenges facing
underdeveloped Afghanistan's next leader as the country heads
into the second round of the presidential election on June 14.

"People have lost everything they had -- houses, property,
villages, agricultural fields, cattle," Baghlan police spokesman
Jawed Basharat said about the floods.

"There's nothing left for them to survive. People don't even
have drinking water," he added. "They urgently need water, food
items, blankets and tents."

Television channels relayed footage of one man wading
through a gushing stream of muddy brown flood waters, his back
stooped under the weight of a burlap sack.

Basharat said the Afghan army was battling to deliver aid to
the affected families, many of whom have fled to mountaintops to
escape flood waters.

Afghanistan's defence ministry had dispatched two
helicopters to deliver aid packages to the area as roads and
mountain passes were left devastated by the floods, said
Obaidullah Ramin, an MP from Baghlan province.

"Some nine kilometres of roads were destroyed by
floodwaters, so officials are trying to deliver aid by air,"
Ramin told AFP.

"Relief agencies have distributed some aid, but it is not
enough. The problems of the flood-affected people need to be
addressed fully," he said, adding that he had toured the affected
areas.

Most disaster management officials were difficult to reach
Sunday due to poor telecommunication networks in the remote area.

The governor of the province, Sultan Mohammad Ebadi, said
the death toll stood at 74, warning that the extent of the
disaster was "massive" and that the toll was expected to rise
further.

Bodies of women and children were among those recovered from
the inundated areas, the National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA) said, adding that scores of people were missing.

"There is a lot of stagnant water, and there are more bodies
under the rubble and mud," Mohammad Nasim Kohzad, head of NDMA in
Baghlan, told AFP.

"We are still looking for other victims of this flood."

- 'Massive' damage -

The governor of the remote affected district of Guzargah-e-
Nur confirmed that 74 bodies had been recovered by authorities.

"The floods destroyed four villages, and washed away 2,000
residential houses, agricultural fields and also killed thousands
of cattle," Noor Mohammad Guzar told AFP.

Officials were further assessing the extent of the damage on
life and property in the affected area, Mohammad Aslam Sayas, the
deputy head of the National Disaster Management Authority, said.

"Our teams have also provided some edibles (food items) and
medication to the affected people. More aid will get there soon,"
he said.

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a statement said
he was saddened by the loss of life and property in Baghlan
province, and directed disaster management officials to dispatch
emergency relief aid to affected families.

Last month a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a
village in a remote area of northeast Badakhshan province,
killing at least 300 people.

The May 2 disaster left hundreds of families homeless in
Argu district of the mountainous province which borders
Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.

The floods and landslides follow recent severe flooding that
have affected a vast swathe of Afghanistan, particularly northern
provinces, leaving 175 people dead and tens of thousands
displaced.

Flooding and landslides often occur during the spring rainy
season in northern Afghanistan, with flimsy mud houses offering
little protection against rising water levels and torrents of
mud.

Afghanistan is currently voting to choose a successor to
Karzai, who has been in power since the fall of the 1996-2001
Taliban regime.

Afghan presidential front-runner Abdullah Abdullah faces
former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in next week's vote run-
off.