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More Than 200 Dead, Thousands Homeless, After Pakistani Monsoons
ISLAMABAD, July 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Millions of dollars worth of damage are the least of the losses incurred during this week's torrential rainfalls in Pakistan that killed more than 200 people and displaced tens of thousands.
In what quickly became the worst monsoon of the century in Pakistan, flash floods and landslides in the north of the country on Monday and Tuesday caused massive destruction, with those who have been left homeless moved to makeshift relief camps, police and officials said Wednesday.
CNN said that the government is expected to release more details on the cost of damage as relief and rescue work continues.
Affected portions of GT Road, Karakorum Highway, Indus Highway and national highways in Balochistan have already been repaired, National Highway Authority Chairman Maj-Gen. Tariq Javed told the Pakistani news agency APP.
So far, 83 bodies have been pulled from the rubble of Dadhar village in the Mansehra district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where a flash flood destroyed dozens of traditional mud houses on Monday.
"We have recovered 83 bodies and shifted 64 injured to the army medical complex in Abbotabad for treatment," police officer Afsar Khan told AFP from the area.
He said the rain had caused floods and landslides in the entire Bhogermang valley of Mansehra, killing more than 100 and displacing thousands of villagers. Another 36 were killed in Chagharzai village in the neighboring Buner district.
"We have set up temporary camps in school buildings to accommodate people who have been made homeless," said Mansehra deputy commissioner Haroon Rafiq.
Officials said it was difficult to assess the exact number of people displaced in the calamity-hit areas, as roads and communications were blocked in many places.
The military government's emergency response authorities also appeared to be in disarray, with many officials unable to give basic details about the problems in some of the worst hit areas.
In the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, which recorded the highest rainfall in 100 years on Monday, the death toll rose to between 50 and 70, but dozens more are still missing, a CNN online report said.
Forty-two bodies had been recovered in Rawalpindi Wednesday and around 40,000 people had been moved to camps set up by the army and police, said city police chief Kaleem Khurshid.
"The water in the Leh river is receding and many people are returning to their damaged homes," he said. "Those whose houses have been completely destroyed will continue to live in the camps."
Rawalpindi's damage was aggravated by its geography: at a lower land level than the neighboring capital city, it received the run-off from Islamabad - which recorded 620 mm (24 inches) of rain in 10 hours on Monday - after its own encounter with the rains, according to CNN.
Khurshid said relief operations were in full swing and authorities were providing food and medical facilities to the needy.
A senior official in Rawalpindi said that the current figures for the death toll only included those the government had obtained personal details of, CNN reported.
"There must be many more deaths," Khurram Agha was quoted in the report as saying. "The situation for the people is still terrible, there has been such a colossal loss, there is so much sorrow."
Islamabad police chief Nasir Durrani said the storms devastated slum areas of the capital, killing nine people and injuring 50.
"We have evacuated more than 1,000 people to makeshift camps and they are being provided with food and medical facilities," Durrani told AFP.
The heavy flooding has choked sewerage and water systems for nearly 3.5 million residents of Rawalpindi, and authorities said fresh water supplies would not be restored for at least another two to seven days.
"We cannot do it. It is not possible to provide water to such a huge number, but we are trying our best by arranging water tankers from Islamabad and other neighboring districts," Khurshid said.
Thousands of people took to the streets outside the Rawalpindi district police headquarters to protest at the government's failure to adequately deal with the crisis and arrange alternative water supplies.
"There is no water to drink, clean our homes or give to our children to wash their faces. We are saving whatever water we can find," said Rawalpindi resident Waris Bhatti.
Pattan, a non-governmental agency dedicated to helping riverside communities, said the risk of epidemics would rise in Rawalpindi unless the government acted urgently.
"Whole communities have had no drinking water for the past 24 hours. There is no dry place to cook even if fuel, utensils and rations were to be available," Pattan national coordinator Sarwar Bari said.
"An epidemic outbreak is a looming next calamity."
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