As country mourns, focus shifts to helping 700 Afghan families displaced by landslide

Survivors sit with their possessions near the site of Friday's landslide that buried Abi-Barik village in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, Saturday, May 3, 2014. Afghan rescuers and volunteers armed with shovels and little more than their bare hands dug through the mud Saturday after a massive landslide swept through a village the day before, turning it into an earthen tomb holding hundreds of bodies, officials said. Aid groups struggle to bring food, shelter and water to the region, as the government tries to ascertain just how many people were killed. (AP Photo/Amir Shah) (The Associated Press)

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Afghans search for survivors after Friday's landslide buried Abi-Barik village in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, Saturday, May 3, 2014. Afghan rescuers and hundreds of volunteers armed with shovels rushed on Saturday to help villagers hit by a massive landslide in the remote northeast a day earlier, officials said, while fears of a new torrent of mud and earth complicated rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Gulrahim Niazman) (The Associated Press)

Survivors sit with their possessions near the site of Friday's landslide that buried Abi-Barik village in Badakhshan province, northeastern Afghanistan, Saturday, May 3, 2014. Afghan rescuers and hundreds of volunteers armed with shovels rushed on Saturday to help villagers hit by a massive landslide in the remote northeast a day earlier, officials said, while fears of a new torrent of mud and earth complicated rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Gulrahim Niazman) (The Associated Press)

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says authorities are trying to help 700 families who had to flee their homes after a landslide Friday buried a large swathe of their village.

The Minister for Rural Rehabilitation, Wais Ahmad Barmak, said all the families have been evacuated from their homes due to the threat of more landslides.

President Hamid Karzai designated Sunday as a national day of mourning for the hundreds of people who died in the village of Abi Barik in Badakhshan province.

Barmak said authorities still don't have an exact figure on how many people perished.

He said they have identified 250 people who died and estimated that 300 houses were buried under tons of mud. But they don't know how many people were home at the time.