Pakistan Boost Rescue Effort After Flash Floods Kill 275, Destroys Homes

Pakistan stepped up rescue efforts after flash floods and heavy rains in the northwest killed 291 people and left thousands stranded in the region’s worst storms. Communication systems collapsed.

“We have 23 helicopters which are helping in relief and rescue missions across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province today,” Amir Siddique, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, a government agency, said by telephone from Islamabad today.

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 in the province, according to Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi Rescue Service.

“The infrastructure of this province was already destroyed by terrorism,” Mian Iftikhar Hussain, provincial information minister, said in a televised news conference from Peshawar yesterday. “Whatever was left, was finished off by these floods. There are chances of further flooding and more damage.” He appealed for tents, boats and food for those left homeless and asked people to evacuate affected towns and cities.

Army Troops

Army troops equipped with life jackets, motorboats and heavy rafts were called in to help move families to safe locations, the military said in a statement on its website yesterday. At least 400,000 people were stranded in cities and villages across the province.

Pakistani television channels showed images of submerged huts, collapsed bridges and people grabbing onto wreckage on flooded roads to keep from being swept away by the water.

“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 Peshawar, Swat, Nowshera, Lower Dir and Charsadda were worst affected, according to the government. Rains are forecast across the province today, according to the country’s weather office.

The water level in the River Swat crossed 250,000 cusecs yesterday, the highest since 1929, according to the disaster management agency. Of 55 Chinese engineers trapped in the Kohistan district, 46 were rescued, it said.

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; Anwar Shakir in Peshawar at Ashakir1@bloomberg.net.