Rescue workers have today recovered at least 11 bodies in their search for hundreds of people missing from the weekend floods, officials said.
The recovery brought the death toll from flooding in Dire Dawa and outlying areas to at least 211.
Police said frantic rescue efforts were continuing as the chances of locating alive any of the around 300 people still unaccounted for were slim.
"We are expecting the death toll to increase," Berekat Simon, a senior aide to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said.
Dire Dawa is about 500 kilometres west of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Earlier, Ethiopian Red Cross officials maintained the toll was at least 210 and possibly as high as 215.
"The toll being given by police and hospitals is for bodies recovered, taken to hospital and confirmed dead there, but between 10 and 15 people were buried by family members before reaching the hospital," Red Cross emergency coordinator Kassahun Debelie said.
Rescuers search river
Military divers joined the search in the now-receding waters of the two rivers that burst their banks as the operation expanded 40 kilometres downstream, where officials said more bodies might have been washed.
"We have dispatched the army and police as far as 40 kilometres downstream to look for bodies," Dire Dawa police inspector Beniam Fikru said. "We also have divers searching in riverbed waterholes."
Some families in Dire Dawa still hold out hope that the bodies of their missing relatives can at least be recovered for burial after the discovery of vehicles in the sand.
"We can see parts of partially buried cars and motorbikes in the riverbed," one resident said. "People think that some people could be buried in them and that is why they keep searching."
Security forces and aid workers were digging through mud, sand and debris with heavy equipment, smaller garden tools and their hands in a desperate bid to find more survivors. At least 96 people have been rescued over the past two days.
Crowds of people crammed make-shift mortuaries and overwhelmed hospitals in search of the missing while others carried on with the gruesome and emotional task of identifying the dead and burying them.
As local aid workers distributed food and water to grieving survivors, officials said federal authorities would step up their relief operations.
About 10,000 people have been left homeless by the raging waters from two rivers, the Dechatu and Dire Dawa, which broke their banks after heavy rains, and swept through the town and adjacent areas.