At least 38 people were killed on Wednesday when a dam burst in southern Kenya.
The walls of the Patel dam, situated on a flower farm on top of a hill in Nakuru county, 190 km (120 miles) northwest of Nairobi, gave way late on Wednesday sweeping away homes while many people were asleep.
"The search and rescue exercise is ongoing and more bodies have been retrieved," regional police chief Gideon Kibunjah told AFP.
"It is a disaster because most people were asleep when the tragedy occurred,” he confirmed.
Kibunjah said 36 people had been hospitalized.
After a severe drought, weeks of torrential rains in Kenya have led to flooding and mudslides that have left 159 dead.
A senior police officer in Nakuru, speaking on condition of anonymity, said emergency workers had spent the night combing through engulfed houses to retrieve the bodies of the victims and had only covered about half of the affected area.
"We found 11 of the bodies covered with mud at a coffee plantation and these are people who may have been escaping but could not make it due to the force and speed of the water from the flooded dam," he said.
"Most of them are women and children who could not have been able to run fast, and the elderly."
The floodwaters swept away powerlines, homes and buildings, including a primary school, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.
Veronica Wanjiku Ngigi, 67, said she was at home brewing tea with her son at around 8 pm (1700 GMT) when his wife rushed in to say the dam had burst and they needed to get to higher ground immediately.
“It was a sea of water. My neighbor was killed when the water smashed through the wall of his house. He was blind so he could not run. They found his body in the morning,” she told Reuters. “My other neighbors also died. All our houses have been ruined.”
The area around Nakuru is on the edge of Kenya’s main flower-farming region - a major source of foreign exchange and employment for East Africa’s biggest economy - and is dotted with irrigation reservoirs. Nearly all Kenya’s cut flowers are exported to Europe.
The Kenyan Red Cross estimates that up to 500 families were affected by the disaster, which took place some 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Nairobi.
"We have set up a center near the scene for families to report missing members to enable us to reunite them," said Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui.
Other nearby dams looked like they were ready to burst, Wanjiku said.
“There is another dam which is also overflowing which is looking risky,” she said. “We are scared.”
“The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be ascertained,” Nakuru governor Lee Kinyajui said in a statement.
Arriving at the scene, Interior Minister Fred Matiangi pledged central government assistance to those affected.
Government statistics released Wednesday showed that more than 220,000 people have been displaced by flooding as heavy rains hit the country after three consecutive failed rainy seasons had left it in drought.
Since March, at least 21,000 acres (8,500 hectares) of farmland have been submerged in water with an estimated 20,000 animals killed, the Red Cross said last week.
The floods have also destroyed road networks in some parts of the East African country and in some cases the military has stepped in to airlift residents from submerged houses.
The Red Cross appealed last week for $5 million (four million euros) to help those affected.
