Reminds me of the current Gulf gusher coverage.
And why not start it with a missing web photo (printed paper had it):
"Villagers displaced by flooding jostled in line yesterday as food was distributed on the outskirts of Muzaffargarh in Pakistan. Water is spreading through central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces on its way to the Arabian Sea"
I count at least seven beautiful Pakistani women and one screaming child. Photo is black and white so I don't get to see the beautiful and colorful dress.
Article: "Floods threaten southern Pakistan; Next days critical for river barriers" by Carlotta Gall, New York Times | August 21, 2010
MULTAN, Pakistan — Surging waters are shifting flood damage southward in Pakistan as the water level rises at one of the main flood barriers north of the city of Hyderabad, officials said yesterday.
The next two days will be critical for the city’s 1.5 million people, but embankments strengthened over the last 10 days offer some protection, said an officer at the flood control room there, who identified himself as Major Ehsan....
The Indus River, which has flooded 5 to 7 miles beyond its banks....
I'm having a hard time imagining a river 15-miles-wide!
Villages upriver are still being inundated, and although most of the population has been evacuated from low-lying areas, the military was still getting phone calls from people stranded in their homes and was sending out rescue boats, he said.
The floods, which have struck about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, were set off by torrential monsoon rains in the northern highlands that began July 28.
Related: Wading Back Into Pakistan
Pakistan's Epic Flood
Paddling Through Today's Pakistan Flood Coverage
Pakistan Opens the Floodgates For U.S. Troops
Pakistan President Steps Around the Puddles
Taliban Flood Back Into Pakistan
Asia Under Water
Pakistan Floods Wash Away War on Terror
Pakistan's Oasis
Maybe you would like to pause a minute?
Water tore through the upper part of the country with terrifying velocity, and is now spreading out through the flood plains of central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces on its way to the Arabian Sea.
Questions have been raised about national and local preparedness, whether there were delays in warning local officials of the pending flooding, and whether officials who were alerted failed to react promptly. Government officials warned yesterday that high tides in the Arabian Sea expected next week will add to the flooding in the coastal areas south of Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has accepted an offer of $5 million of aid offered by its archrival India, after several days of hesitation. Receiving assistance from India is politically delicate in Pakistan, and the government can expect criticism from some of the religious and nationalist parties that support the fight for an independent Kashmir, the contested region split between India and Pakistan.
Related: India Causes Fresh Pakistan Floods
And has Kashmir ever dropped of the BG radar screen.
Hey, it's only Muslims being mowed down.
India also donated assistance after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the government also waited then before accepting the offer. As of yesterday, the United Nations had received $263 million, plus about $54 million in additional pledges.
Yeah, the world is just treating Pakistan great.
“This is not just Pakistan’s hour of need — Pakistan is facing weeks, months, and years of need,’’ said Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.
Didn't the photo-op plane trip exacerbate the global warming?
--more--"
"More towns in Pakistan are flooded" by Ashraf Khan, Associated Press | August 22, 2010
Flood survivors jostled for position as a Pakistan military helicopter delivered relief goods yesterday in Punjab Province. (Aaron Favila/Associated Press)
SUKKUR, Pakistan — About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said yesterday.
Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home, however: The waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges, and crops vital to livelihoods.
Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh Province....
Added to the millions of internal and Afghan war refugees.
Never read much about those AmeriKan-created camps.
At a relief camp in the Sukkur area, some victims said it was difficult to get the food dropped off by relief trucks.
“I am a widow, and my children are too young to get food because of the chaos and rush,’’ said Parveen Roshan. “How can weak women win a fight with men to get food?’’
*************
The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, straining its civilian government as it also struggles against Al Qaeda and Taliban violence.
I was wondering when they would mention the wars.
At least 6 million people have been made homeless and 20 million affected overall.
Those are HOLOCAUST NUMBERS!
The economic cost is expected to run into billions of dollars....
The floods began in late July in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, expanding rivers that have since swamped eastern Punjab Province and Sindh Province in the south.
--more--"
"Many Pakistanis can’t afford to flee" by Tim Sullivan, Associated Press | August 23, 2010
As the sun set yesterday, a Pakistani family waited for a food handout at a camp for flood victims on the outskirts of Peshawar. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)
HAMDANI LEGARI, Pakistan — The old man stepped carefully through his village, dodging craters as deep as graves where they had been mining soil for embankments to hold back the floodwaters. Already, nearly half this village of tenant farmers had been destroyed. The crops wiped out.
But Mohammed Ayoub and his neighbors were not leaving, not unless all the mud houses collapsed. It was not about pride, or a farmer’s love for his village or the land he sows. It was a straightforward financial equation: They could not afford to lose what little they had left.
If, to an outsider, their belongings might look inconsequential — some goats, a couple buffalo, cheap metal cooking pots and transistor radios — it was everything to them.
Speak for yourself, s*** MSM!
Those things look far from inconsequential to me!!
That is what LIFE is all about!
And with no way to take their possessions with them, they were not going to leave them for the looters.
Where is the bank?
Across the Pakistan flood zone, thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of people have decided to stay in their homes, often sleeping on rooftops because of the high water. Stranded on tiny islands a few inches above the water line and refusing offers of rescue, they are reflections of Pakistan today: its widespread poverty, the collapse of the traditional bonds between landlords and tenants, and the lack of confidence in authorities’ willingness to protect them.
“The women were scared before we sent them away, and we’re scared now,’’ said Ayoub, a thin, courtly man with a white mustache wearing a dirt-stained shalwar kameez, the baggy shirt and pants ubiquitous across rural Pakistan.
He was one of about 30 men who remained as guardians and to build up the embankments in case of more flooding. About 400 villagers have fled.
“How can we all leave?’’ Ayoub asked. “We have to stay here if we want to protect what we own.’’
Another farmer, a young man, spoke up: “We’re not scared of dying,’’ Ghulam Raza said loudly. “We’re scared of losing everything we have.’’
These are the "terrorists," right?
In reality, death is not much of a worry now in this part of Sindh Province. The worst of the danger passed when the floods swept through more than a week ago, and even then no one here died. Life, though, is desperately miserable: There is little food, no electricity, the well is filled with brown flood water, and there’s nothing to do but dig more holes to shore up the embankments.
While doctors say cases of malaria and gastrointestinal diseases are spiking across the flooded areas, and there have been sporadic cases of cholera, there are enough fishing boats in this part of Sindh to get people to the shoreline if they want.
Which is a BRUTAL DEATH!
Pakistan’s troubles began in late July, when annual monsoon rains turned savage, and within a few days, as much rain fell as the country normally receives in a year. About 1,500 people have died.
But that was only the beginning. The rain that had fallen in the mountainous northwest began flowing southward through the plains, swelling rivers, breaking through embankments, flooding an area the size of Italy, and wreaking havoc across the agricultural heartland.
Millions of people were left homeless. Yesterday, flood levels had stabilized in central Sindh, but were surging further south in the province.
The village is in the flood plains of the Indus, a river that has fed societies in this part of the world for millennia and where villagers are long accustomed to monsoon flooding.
Oh, no! That means MASS STARVATION!
But on the morning of Aug. 14, they awoke to something strange and terrifying. Past floods had risen a few inches a day, and normally stopped long before they devastated the crops. This one rose 6 feet in less than 24 hours, they say, cutting off the village and swamping buildings.
That is over my head!
--more--"
And despite the suffering:
The Obama Administration’s policy of escalating drone strikes took another hit today, after the explosion from a drone attack against the house of “suspected militants” in North Waziristan also destroyed a neighboring house full of women and children.
The combined toll from the blast was 20 people killed, with at least four women and three children among the slain....
At least 13 other civilians were also reported wounded, including a number of other children.The large numbers of civilians (700 in 2009 alone) killed in the US drone strikes has fueled considerable anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. When pressed during a previous visit Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shrugged off concerns about the civilians, saying only “there’s a war going on.”
That's Obama's surgical scalpel, readers.
Related: U. S. Delivers Massive Missile Aid to Baluchistan
PARACHINAR, Pakistan — Three bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan, two in tribal regions near the Afghan border and a third near the region’s main city of Peshawar, killed at least 36 people yesterday, officials and a witness said.
Meanwhile, three suspected US missiles fired from unmanned aircraft struck a house near Miran Shah in North Waziristan, killing four alleged militants, said two intelligence officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release the information to the media....
The deadliest blast was a suicide attack at a mosque inside a religious school in South Waziristan that killed 26 people and injured 40 more, said an intelligence official in the region. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the orders set down by his agency....
Sorry, but that STINKS of a FALSE FLAG!
There was no claim of responsibility, though Islamist militants have often attacked clerics or others who do not support them....
Earlier, a bomb exploded inside a school during a meeting of elders in Kurram tribal region, killing seven people. A local official said the elders were discussing a disagreement over ownership of the school building. It wasn’t clear if the blast was tied to that dispute or if it had been launched by Islamist militants.
The suspected US missiles hit in a region dominated by the Haqqani network of Islamist militants determined to push US and NATO forces out of Afghanistan....
NOT AGAIN!
"Haqqani.... credited with introducing suicide bombing to the region.... cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his work.... He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden.... In July 2008, CIA officials confronted Pakistan officials with evidence of ties between Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani. Haqqani has been accused of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul...."
Also see: Pakistan floods disrupt US supply lines to forces in Afghanistan
I haven't read anything about that in my paper -- and Haqqani doesn't need terror; he's got the floods.
Maybe they even caused 'em, huh?
The region has been pounded by similar attacks over the last two years. Yesterday’s strike was the third since massive floods began covering much of Pakistan in late July.
Yeah, no let-up there.
Washington does not acknowledge firing the missiles, and details of the attacks typically remain scarce.
The army has launched offensives in South Waziristan and Kurram over the last 18 months. There is little or no government in either tribal area.--more--"
Yeah, the floods benefit the terrorists (as they wash away they bases?):
"Pakistan leader says militants may exploit crisis; Rising waters threaten levees in two cities" by Karin Brulliard, Washington Post | August 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Asif Ali Zardari said yesterday that the calamitous flooding across the country could foment public anger and embolden Islamist militants, but he expressed confidence that his government would survive the crisis.
In a meeting with foreign journalists, Zardari called it the “ideal hope of the radical’’ that the floods would discredit Pakistan’s government, which has been criticized for a slow and muddled response. One has to fight against extremist groups that aim to scoop up orphaned children and turn them into “robots,’’ he said.
I MUST SAY I am SO DISAPPOINTED to see Mr. Ten-Percent pick up the mantra of PROPAGANDA!
Emergency workers labored frantically yesterday to shore up levees protecting two southern cities.
In Shadad Kot, in the southern province of Sindh, authorities are increasingly worried that even the 10 miles of new levees soldiers have built to protect the city, as well as those in Qambar farther to the south, may not hold back the massive floods.
Workers were piling stones and sandbags in Shadad Kot to plug leaks in the levees, trying to stay ahead of any damage to the defenses. “It is the last-ditch effort to save the city,’’ said Brigadier Khawar Baig. “We are trying to block the water here. If it crosses over, we fear it will go further south and inundate more towns.’’
On the eastern side of the city, levees were under pressure from 9-foot-high floodwaters, said Yaseen Shar, the top administrative official. Ninety percent of Shadad Kot’s 350,000 residents have fled.
Even before floodwaters submerged one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, Zardari’s unpopular, US-backed government was struggling to contain a rising insurgency and cope with a weak economy. The floods have killed at least 1,500 people, destroyed or damaged 1.2 million homes, and left at least 6 million homeless. They have given an opening to Islamist charities, some of which have provided aid to frustrated victims.
When are we going to see an ARTICLE in my agenda-pushing, Muslim-hating, war-promoting MSM on all the GOOD THEY ARE DOING as the U.S. puppet falters, huh?
Some of the challenges to the government were underscored over the past two days. Yesterday, militants carried out three bombings that killed at least 36 people in the restive northwest.
And the MISSILE STRIKE that KILLED WOMEN and CHILDREN?
The day before, the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a political party that is in a coalition government led by Zardari’s ruling party, seemed to call for martial law, suggesting in a public address that “patriotic generals’’ weed out corrupt politicians. Zardari has long been dogged by graft allegations.
Isn't there another way?
As floodwaters began spreading early this month, Zardari was in Europe, visiting leaders and his family’s French chateau. He was assailed as a symbol of government failure....
Yesterday, Zardari defended his government’s response, saying his European trip helped strengthen relations that would help Pakistan in the long run. The prime minister was in control of the situation, he said.
The fact that so many people were saved shows that the government was doing its job, Zardari said.
Many of the most visible relief efforts have been made by the military, which has run Pakistan for half its existence and still is viewed as the true power. The floods have diverted the army’s attention from its fight against insurgents in the northwest, and its manpower could be key to post-flood recovery.
It is a shame it took such a catastrophe to stop the killing!
Zardari declined to comment on whether that would delay new counterterrorism offensives that the United States has been pushing for, but he said the “resolve is not going down.’’
The United States has contributed food, helicopters and $150 million of the $815 million in international assistance pledged to help Pakistan cope. That is more than any other nation, and US officials hope it will also help improve the American image in a nation where distrust of the United States rages.
As long as the MISSILES KEEP FALLING from the sky we are NOT IMPROVING a THING!
--more--"
"US: Pakistan will keep up counterinsurgency fight" by Anne Gearan, AP National Security Writer | August 25, 2010
In this picture taken Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010, Pakistani residents stand on their property which is surrounded by flood waters, near Thul in Sindh province, southern Pakistan. Floods have isolated about 800,000 people in Pakistan who are now only reachable by air and aid workers need at least 40 more helicopters to ferry lifesaving aid to the increasingly desperate people, the United Nations said. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
I think the photograph speaks for itself.
WASHINGTON --Pakistan has assured the United States it will press its campaign against insurgents inside its borders despite the extraordinary demands the devastating floods have inflicted on its military, U.S. officials said Wednesday....
Then your government has failed you, Pakistan.
Their credibility just washed away with the flood.
The floods began almost a month ago with the onset of the monsoon and have ravaged much of the country, from the mountainous north through to its agricultural heartland. More than 8 million people are in need of emergency assistance, and more than 17 million have been affected....
Related: US diverts floodwater on town to protect airbase in Pakistan
Yeah, we are a big help over there!
A recent Pew Foundation poll found nearly six in 10 Pakistanis viewed the United States as an enemy; only one in 10 called it a partner....
One word: missiles
The U.S. interest in helping goes beyond easing suffering.
Yeah, we ALWAYS HAVE an ULTERIOR MOTIVE!
Washington does not want Pakistan's weak civilian government to lose ground to Muslim charity groups associated with militants, who are also providing aid to flood victims.
Yeah, they ONLY GET a VAGUE SENTENCE in my Muslim-hating MSM (with no public and commercial appeals for aid to Pakistan, unlike Haiti).
At least one of the Muslim charities involved in aid work is alleged to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned militant organization blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India.
F*** you, MSM!
Also see: No Mercy For Mumbai Patsy
No mercy for the AmeriKan newspaper reader, either.
Related:
Millions of Pakistanis have been displaced by the floods
Sometimes I think they are the most beautiful kids in the whole world (and then my eyes let loose).
It doesn't last long, though.
AmeriKa's MSM propaganda takes care of that:
"Taliban suggest they'll act against flood aid groups; Say foreigners hide motives, are unwanted" by Rasool Dawar, Associated Press | August 27, 2010
There are still Taliban left?
They haven't been washed away?
Pakistanis gathered on higher ground as flood waters entered Alam Kot village in Sindh Province yesterday. The United Nations says 800,000 people are cut off and has appealed for more helicopters to deliver supplies to those reachable only by air. (Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images)
Pakistan's piece of the rock?
Can't go much higher!
I thought the waters were supposed to be receding!!
MIR ALI, Pakistan — The Taliban hinted yesterday that they may launch attacks against foreigners helping Pakistan respond to the worst floods in the country’s history, saying their presence was “unacceptable.’’
Pffft!
Cui bono?
Who looks bad?
The United Nations said it would not be deterred by violent threats.
The militant group has attacked aid workers in the country before, and an outbreak of violence could complicate a relief effort that has struggled to reach the 8 million people who are in need of emergency assistance.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said that the United States and other countries that have pledged support are not really focused on providing aid to flood victims but had other motives....
Heck, even my MSM newspaper admits that.
