Police said 170 more bodies were recovered in the country’s southwest on Wednesday, bringing the total deaths in the area to 364.
But authorities feared several hundred more may have drowned in weekend flooding in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s State.
“We are preparing ourselves for more bodies – maybe even hundreds more,” regional police spokesman Daniel Gezhegn said
The affected state appealed to the international community to help search and rescue efforts.
The region’s head, Shiferaw Shegute, said the magnitude of the task was beyond the means of the country.
“The area is so huge,” he said. “The disaster is not something we can tackle by ourselves.”
He said trapped residents were shouting for help when government officials flew over the disaster zone.
Relief hampered
Officials said poor weather continued to hamper relief operations, preventing helicopters from landing and forcing emergency workers to use boats to help those in need.
“We have dispatched boats to these areas with food, medicine and tents,” local administrator Kadaki Gezhegn said.
Rescuers, including swimmers and divers, have also been sent to save those stranded in the water.
Said Muhei, a journalist who flew over the flooded area in a military helicopter, said uncertainty about the depth of the water prevented choppers from landing in many places.
He stressed the enormity of the devastation in an interview with state radio.
“Flying over the area, one can only see a whole area covered with water. You cannot see land below the rooves of houses and tops of trees,” he said.
“In areas where we could land, people have lost everything.”
The Omo River broke its banks on Sunday leaving 14 villages submerged and 20,000 people stranded.
The flooding in the south comes as heavy seasonal rains broke the banks of rivers in the east earlier this month where 256 people were killed last week and 250 people are still missing.
The nationwide total of flood-related dead and missing in the past month now stands at 876.