Day of mourning for Afghan quake victims

Afghans near the quake's epicenter sift through rubble

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan is observing a day of mourning for the hundreds of people killed in a series of earthquakes in the foothills of the Hindu Kush.

Rescue workers are facing rough terrain, aftershocks, and bad weather as they race to the north of the country taking aid to the thousands who lost their homes.

Aerial surveys suggested about 90 percent of the houses in the area were damaged, with some 60 percent suffering heavy damage or destroyed, Reuters reported a U.N. spokesman in New York as saying.

Estimates on the toll are varying, with witnesses near the quake's epicenter in the Nahrin district of Baghlan province, about 160 km (100 miles) north of Kabul, saying thousands may have been killed.

CNN NewsPass Video    •  Aftershocks hampering a rescue effort   •  Thousands feared dead in Afghan quake  MORE STORIES   •  Europe readies aid for Afghan quake  EXTRA INFORMATION   •  Gallery: After the earthquake  RESOURCES   •  Timeline: Major earthquakes of the last 20 years   •  Timeline: Quakes of the 20th Century (Flash)  MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater

Government officials say almost 2,000 people have been killed by the powerful earthquake.

However, aid agencies, including the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, estimate that the death toll may be much lower and do not expect it to exceed the low hundreds in Nahrin -- adding that confusion is common in the immediate period after a disaster.

Thousands have been left injured the government said and there are also reports that as many as 30,000 people are homeless after Tuesday's quake destroyed thousands of buildings.

The quake measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, while an overnight aftershock measured 5.0, according to the U.S. Goeological Survey

The U.S. Army, and international peacekeepers are also mobilizing to help the many aid agencies in the region.

Impassable

One of the reasons for the confusion regarding the extent of the damage is that relief agencies are struggling to get to the affected regions.

CNN's Nick Robertson reported that aid agencies were hampered by roads rendered impassable and the mountainous terrain.

There are essentially two main roads into the area one over a mountain ridge, the other through a high series of pass roads.

Both were unsealed, hit by landslides and muddy or had been affected by the quakes, Robertson said.

Heading to the area, Robertson said that his vehicle took seven hours to travel less than 100 km.

He added that helicopter was currently the best way for aid officials to get to the scene.

A U.N. assessment team has been dispatched to the area by road from Mazar-e Sharif while a separate team has been transported by helicopter from Kabul by the International Security Force.

Once there they would be able to determine what action to take and where relief efforts should be directed.

"The feeling is that much of the food, the tents and the blankets that will be needed, are already available in the north ... so we expect to be able to respond even more fully once we know the situation on the ground," the assistant to the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, Nigel Fisher said.

"We have now many humanitarian agencies that able to get to some places in Nahrin ... but still some areas are not accessible," Yusuf Hassan from the U.N.'s refugee branch said.

Nahrin devastated

Initial reports indicate that the city of Nahrin had been almost totally destroyed by the quake.

"What we know is that the old city, old town has been completely brought to ground. Nothing survived there as far as buildings concerned," Hassan said.

"The new area has been damaged, maybe up to 80 percent town damaged and many other villages destroyed in the process."

A boy clears away rubble in his flattened home

The U.N. and other relief agencies have sent several convoys of emergency supplies, including more than 2,000 tents, 1,000 blankets, food and drinking water, the organization's Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

Also traveling to the devastated area on Wednesday was Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, after canceling a trip to Turkey.

There were no reports that U.S. troops stationed at Bagram Air Base near Kabul and in Kandahar being injured.

Hassan said that the disaster was a "triple tragedy" for the people of Baghlan who had been hit by years of civil war.

The area was also hit by a quake in 1998 that left almost 7,000 dead.