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Pakistan Flooding Death Toll Climbs to 408 From 46 as Thousands Stranded
Pakistan’s death toll from flash floods and heavy rains in the northwest has risen to 408 and may climb further as thousands are still stranded in the region’s worst storms.
“The final toll will be much higher than we are estimating now,” Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said at a news conference in Peshawar today. The toll has risen from 46 deaths 36 hours ago.
The death toll is on top of the 152 people who died when a plane crashed in heavy rains near the capital two days ago. Homes and bridges collapsed in the rain, live electric wires fell into the water and families were swept away in the floods.
“The relief efforts of everyone combined is only five percent of what’s required,” Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi Rescue Service, said by telephone from Peshawar today. “We can see people drowning but we can’t go into the water because of its high pressure.”
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani took an aerial tour of the province today and ordered his government to rescue people and provide food supplies to those at safe locations.
Floods may reach the southern province of Sindh within the next few days, federal Information Minister Sumsam Bokhari said at a news conference in Islamabad today. The Sindh government has ordered people living along the banks of the River Indus to be evacuated.
Army Troops
Army troops equipped with life jackets, motorboats and heavy rafts were called in yesterday to help move families to safe locations, the military said in a statement on its web site.
Pakistani television channels showed images of people grabbing onto wreckage on flooded roads to keep from being swept away by the water, drowning goats and buffalo, and makeshift boats.
“All the houses in my village have been destroyed and now it’s simply a fight for survival for us,” Mehmood Khan, a tribal elder, said by telephone from Wana, South Waziristan. “Food supplies have started to run out. We haven’t eaten in 48 hours and the scant food supplies we saved for women and children may not last long.”
The districts of Nowshera, Charsadda, Peshawar, Swat, Lower Dir and the worst affected, according to the government.
The water level in the River Swat crossed 250,000 cusecs yesterday, the highest since 1929, according to the National Disaster Management Agency in Islamabad.
The first spell of the monsoon started on July 22 and affected the western province of Baluchistan, the disaster authority said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at Kkhan14@bloomberg.net; Farhan Sharif in Karachi at Fsharif2@bloomberg.net.
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