Authorities say the death toll from Monday's avalanche in northern Afghanistan has risen to 43 people.

Rescuers in Badakhshan province are still shoveling through deep snow in the search for victims from the disaster that buried an entire village of some 200 people. A day earlier, Afghan army helicopters had descended on the area to help local villagers.

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul expressed its condolences and said it was sending supplies — including tents and plastic sheeting — to the survivors.

Heavy snowfall is common during Afghanistan's harsh winters, but analysts say this is the country's worst winter in decades.

Earlier this year in the same province, more than 40 people perished in freezing cold and avalanches triggered by heavy snow.

In February 2010, a series of avalanches killed at least 165 people near the high-altitude Salang Pass through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital, Kabul, with the north.