Pakistan extends rescue and rescue efforts against floods, warns against landslides
The rescuers in northwest Pakistan widen the rescue operations Sunday after the sudden floods killed more than 220 people in a single district, officials said.
Buner, a mountainous district of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was struck by the clouds and showers of the torrential monsoon on Friday, triggering sudden floods and landslides.
A spokesperson for emergency services in Buner, Mohammad Sohail, said that more than half of the damaged roads in the district had been reopened, allowing vehicles and heavy machines to reach the isolated villages.
The crews are cleaning lots of rocks and mud thrown by floods. They used heavy machines on Sunday to eliminate the rubble from collapsed houses after families reported that some of their relatives were missing.
In one of the deadliest incidents, 24 people from a family died in the village of Qadar Nagar when flood waters swept their house on the eve of a wedding. The head of the family, Umar Khan, said that he had survived the floods because he was out of the house at the time. Four of his relatives have not yet been found, he added.
Provincial Minister of Provincial Ali Amin Gandapur visited Buner on Saturday and announced that the families of the dead will receive payments of 2 million rupees ($ 7,200 American) each. He said that tents, food and clean drinking water are provided to prevent epidemics from water -borne diseases.
A mother and a father tell when they learned the sudden flood and the landslide that struck the village of Himalayas in Dharali on Tuesday – and how they talked with one of their children before the telephone connection was lost and they no longer heard.
According to a government statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is monitoring rescue operations and ordered a faster distribution of aid, an evacuation of blocked people and an intensification of research for the missing.
The Pakistan disasters management authority has warned of more floods and possible landslides between August 17 and 19, urging local administrations to remain on alert. The monsoon rains higher than normal have whipped the country since June 26 and killed more than 600.
Pakistan is very vulnerable to climate -induced disasters. In 2022, a record monsoon killed nearly 1,700 people and destroyed millions of houses.
The country also undergoes sudden floods and regular landslides during the monsoon season, which takes place from June to September, in particular in the northwest rugged, where the villages are often perched on steep slopes and banks.
Strong rains have caused sudden floods and mudslides in northern India, washing the houses and leaving more than 100 disappeared.
Experts say that climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of these extreme weather events in South Asia.
In cashmere controlled by the Indians, Torrential Rains sparked sudden floods in two villages in the Kathua district which killed at least seven people and injured five overnight, officials said. Rescue and rescue operations are underway.
In the Kishtwar district, the teams are continuing their efforts in the village isolated from Chositi, looking for dozens of disappeared people after the area was struck by sudden floods three days earlier. At least 60 were killed and around 150 injured, around 50 in critical condition, in the disaster.
Thursday’s floods were struck during an annual Hindu pilgrimage.
Authorities have saved more than 300 people, while some 4,000 pilgrims have been evacuated to security.
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