Floods Wreak Untold Havoc as Death Toll Tops 1000

News Desk

Islamabad: The recent heavy monsoon rains and subsequent floods across the country killed around 1500 people and injured 12,749, creating a “humanitarian crisis” in the country, stated a situation report issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Thursday.

The death toll due to devastating monsoon floods across the country on Thursday surged amid property losses as five more perished in the past 24 hours, taking the total death count to 1,486. As many as 12,749 people have been reported injured since the onset of the monsoon season.

The heavy rains and flash floods caused deaths in various flood-affected areas. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Balochistan reconciled its data on deaths mentioning mortality numbers counted in incidents on September 9. It noted that one man, woman and child were killed in Killa Saifullah.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a man and child were reported dead and a man was injured in Kurram district. There was no incident or loss to report in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Gilgit-Baltistan, Punjab, Sindh and Azad Jammu and Kashmir during the last 24 hours.

The massive torrential rains in the past 24 hours have damaged 300 kilometers of roads in Balochistan whereas 10,336 livestock died.

As many as 5,091 houses got damaged during heavy downpour incidents including 2,166 fully damaged and 2,925 got partially damaged during rains.

However, the cumulative damages so far stated that almost 12,718 km of roads, 390 bridges and 1,760,372 houses and 918,473 livestock animals got damaged due to the heavy rains in various districts of all the provinces, including GB and AJK.

The NDMA report highlighted that 81 districts across the country were notified as calamity-hit areas with some 33,046,329 people affected, 179,281individuals rescued in various rescue operations and 546,288 people inhabited in camps.

The joint surveys for damage assessment were started in 30 districts of Balochistan and some 32 teams were deployed for the survey that was likely to be completed by September 25. In GB, four teams were deployed in the region that started the survey on September 12 and was expected to be complete by September 20.

In Punjab, three survey teams were deployed in the field that initiated the survey on September 12 and was expected to be complete by September 30.

In KP, some six teams were on the ground to initiate the survey that commenced on September 15 and would be completed by October 15.

In Sindh, the survey would commence as soon as practically possible and was expected to commence from September 25.