NOWSHERA, Pakistan (AP) — Even for a country used to tragedy, the scale of flooding that has hit Pakistan in the past week is shocking.

Officials say the death toll has passed 800. The damage to roads, bridges and communications networks is hindering rescuers. And the new threat of disease is emerging in camps for evacuees.

Floodwaters are receding in the northwest but fresh rains are expected to lash other parts of the country in the coming days.

Monsoon rains come every year, but rarely with such fury.

This flooding hit areas in Pakistan's northwest that hadn't seen floods since 1929.

As rivers swelled, people grasped for trees and fences to avoid getting swept away. Others sat on roofs waiting to be rescued by boat or by air. Some buildings crumbled into the raging water.

The devastation follows Pakistan's worst-ever plane crash, which killed 152 people in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Floods are also hitting neighboring Afghanistan, where at least 64 people have been killed and hundreds of homes destroyed.

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Manuel Bessner, United Nations aid coordinator

U-N aid official Manuel Bessner says the flooding is likely to get worse if the monsoon rains hit Singh Province in southern Pakistan. COURTESY: BBC 24 ((mandatory on-air credit))

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sound of people gathering in an area hit by extensive flooding

Rescuers help Pakistani flood victims and medics distribute medicine as fears of disease rises.

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: Pakistani rescue workers evacuate a family from a flooded hit area of Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan, on Saturday, July 31, 2010. The death toll in the massive flooding in Pakistan surged past 800 as floodwaters receded Saturday in the hard-hit northwest, an official said.