News
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Hundreds of thousands uprooted, time running out for rescue
No respite from floods, 500 killed
* KP minister says world needs to move quickly as time running out
* 400,000 people stranded in various northwest villages
* Met Office says more rains likely in next 24 hours
PESHAWAR/LAHORE: Torrential rains and subsequent floods have wreaked havoc on the lives of the people across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 500 people by Friday, with the provincial government appealing to the world to come forward and help the province cope with the calamity.
KP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain called the floods “worse situation in the wake of monsoon rains and flash floods” and put the death toll at 408, adding that time was running out for rescuing people stranded in floodwater.
“At least 600,000 people have been affected and the number is likely to go up as water levels continue to rise in rivers in Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsada,” the minister said.
He said the destruction caused by the flood was wide-scale and the washing away of bridges and highways had impeded relief operations. “I appeal to the world and humanitarian organisations to help us on an urgent basis, as we are facing worse natural disaster,” he told a news conference after a high-level meeting headed by KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti.
The meeting decided to freeze all development projects and focus only on rescue and relief operations for the people affected by rains and floods.
Hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of cultivated land have been destroyed in KP and Azad Kashmir.
Iftikhar warned that if international help did not arrive immediately, it could be too late for thousands of people affected by the calamity. “Help us through food, medicine and money,” the minister pleaded. KP’s rail and road links with Punjab have also been cut off.
Stranded: The minister estimated that 400,000 people were stranded in various northwestern villages. “A rescue operation using helicopters cannot be conducted due to bad weather, while there are only 48 rescue boats available for carrying out relief activities,” he said. Reports from Shangla said 60 people were killed in a landslide in the Olanger area. Forty bodies were recovered while local residents were searching for the remaining corpses. Other reports said 150 people were missing as floods washed away 200 kilometres of main and link roads across KP.
The Karakoram Highway was also closed as rains washed away a bridge in Shangla, cutting off Gilgit-Baltistan from other parts of the country.
Met Office: Pakistan Meteorology Department (PMD) Director General Qamar Zaman Chaudhry said more showers were likely in KP, Punjab and Kashmir in the next 24 to 48 hours.
The Pakistan Army and Navy were called in various areas to help civil administrations cope with relief activities, and the army had reportedly rescued 14,250 people from flood-hit areas in KP by Friday. staff report/daily times monitor
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk