People waded through water while fleeing floods in Risalpur, Nowshera District, Pakistan. Hundreds of villages and towns were under several feet of water. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
Related: Wading Back Into Pakistan
Yeah, it's higher than it was the day before.
"Monsoonal floods kill 430 people in northwest Pakistan" by Associated Press | July 31, 2010
This is worse than the war -- except for the fact that war is by our own hands.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of thousands of villagers cut off by floods in northwest Pakistan yesterday as the government said 430 people had been killed in the deadliest such disaster to hit the region since 1929.
The flooding capped a deadly week in Pakistan, which is no stranger to calamities, natural or otherwise. A passenger jet flying in bad weather slammed into hills overlooking the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, killing all 152 people on board.
Related: Pakistan Is Not Pennsylvania
Three days of heavy monsoonal rains across the northwest caused scores of rivers to burst their banks, tearing down 60 bridges and scores of roads and buildings.
Hundreds of villages and towns, along with massive swaths of agricultural land, were under several feet of water.
Associated Press Television News footage showed a powerful torrent running through the center of Mingora town in the Swat Valley, carrying debris and trees with it. Hundreds of residents trudged through flooded streets as rescue officials used loudspeakers to urge them to evacuate homes in low-lying areas.
An AP reporter traveled in an army helicopter dropping tents and food supplies to stricken communities in the northwest. He flew over around 150 villagers that were inundated close to the border with South Waziristan. The three major roads in the region were blocked.
“This is a natural calamity, and we will do whatever is possible to reach the flood-affected people and to help them,’’ said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa Province. “We appeal to the world community to help us. We need a lot of assistance.’’
It's not getting the airplay Haiti got here.
The United Nations said it and other international bodies were looking at ways to help the region, parts of which have also seen operations by Pakistan’s military against Islamist militants over the last two years. Hundreds of people have been killed in bombings and other attacks by the insurgents.
The war is always an afterthought unless it needs a push by the war-promoting paper.
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"As Pakistan flood recedes, death toll surges past 800" by Nabeel Yusuf, Associated Press | August 1, 2010
NOWSHERA, Pakistan — The death toll in the massive flooding in Pakistan surged past 800 as floodwaters receded yesterday in the hard-hit northwest, an official said.
The damage to roads, bridges, and communications networks hindered rescuers, while the threat of disease loomed as some evacuees arrived in camps with fever, diarrhea, and skin problems.
Even for a country used to tragedy — especially deadly suicide attacks by Taliban militants — the scale of this past week’s flooding has been shocking.
WTF?
I guess this is no big deal to Pakistanis, huh?
Sigh!
Monsoon rains come every year, but rarely with such fury....
As rivers swelled in Pakistan’s northwest, people sought ever-shrinking high ground or grasped for trees and fences to avoid getting swept away. Buildings simply crumbled into the raging river in Kalam, a town in the northern part of the Swat Valley, Geo TV showed....
About 30,000 Pakistani army troops engaged in rescue and relief work had evacuated 19,000 trapped people by last night, said army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
Does that men military actions have ceased?
“The level of devastation is so widespread, so large,’’ he said. “It is quite possible that in many areas there is damage, deaths, which may not have been reported.’’
In the Nowshera area, scores of men, women and children sat on roofs in hopes of air or boat rescues. Many had little more than the clothes on their backs.
Memories of Hurricane Katrina, 'eh, America?
“There are very bad conditions,’’ said Amjad Ali, a rescue worker in the area. “They have no water, no food.’’
A doctor treating evacuees at a small relief camp in Nowshera said some had diarrhea and others had marks appearing on their skin, causing itching....
But they are used to tragedy, so.... sigh.
I can't imagine a more insulting statement.
In the town Charsadda,
“I built this house with my life’s earnings and hard work, and the river has washed it away,’’ he said in a trembling voice. “Now I wonder, will I be able to rebuild it? And in this time, when there are such great price hikes?’’
Another resident of Charsadda complained of what he considered a lackluster government response.
They are all the same.
“Nobody has offered us help. We have got no help,’’ said Awal Sher, 60. “Everything is destroyed. Inside, outside — everything is broken.’’
**********
The devastation followed the worst-ever plane crash in Pakistan, which killed 152 people in Islamabad on Wednesday....
So who is going to help them?
"Frustrations mount in flood-devastated Pakistan; Government’s slow response alienates many" by Griff Witte, Washington Post | August 2, 2010
Pakistani army soldiers passed a baby to safety as they helped people flee from their flooded village yesterday. More than 27,000 people were reported to be trapped by the floods. (Khalid Tanveer/ Associated Press)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Anger against the government grew in the strategically important northwestern region of Pakistan yesterday as authorities appeared overwhelmed by the devastation caused by torrential monsoon rains.
They always do no matter where you live.
Estimates of the death toll from drownings, landslides, and lightning strikes varied, from 730 to 1,100, with officials warning that the total could rise significantly. About 27,000 people remained stranded by the floods, which have wiped out communities and blocked major roadways.
This is a disaster!
The northwest has been battered in recent years by clashes between the army and the Taliban, and the past week’s flooding will add to an extensive list of reconstruction needs. But the government, which is seeking to bolster its standing in the area, appears to have alienated wide segments of the population with a disaster response that residents deem sluggish and disorganized.
I'm sure the military assault hasn't helped the image.
“I haven’t even seen a police officer or a local or provincial representative to at least console us,’’ said Sagheer Khan, a 45-year-old businessman from the inundated village of Nowshera Kalan. “If any government representative is seen now, he will be pelted with stones.’’
************
In past emergencies in Pakistan — including an earthquake in 2005 and the refugee crisis caused by last year’s army offensives — Islamic charities with close ties to banned militant organizations provided basic services, filling a void left by the government and scoring points in the battle for the public’s affection....
Yeah, that is why THEY have SUPPORT and the government does not!
Related: Earthquake in Pashtunistan
Provincial officials in the northwest say this is the worst flooding to hit the area since at least the 1920s, and they acknowledge that they have few resources with which to help victims.
Too much stolen and spent on military?
The army, too, has said that it had not expected such a widespread disaster. In the past week, tens of thousands of soldiers who are accustomed to battling militants have shifted their focus to search-and-rescue operations. The army says it has saved thousands of stranded Pakistanis.
Must the end of war have come at SUCH a COST!
One of the worst-hit areas is the Swat Valley, which has only recently begun to recover from a major clash last year between the army and the Taliban. Major General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, said virtually every bridge in Swat had been destroyed.
“We are unfortunate people in this province: Some are killed in bomb blasts, some in earthquakes, and now we are killed and displaced by the flood,’’ said Ahmad Ali Khan, 54, whose family members spent days stuck on the second floor of their home as water rushed through the first.
It is difficult to imagine, readers.
Pakistani television networks have beamed images of houses being sucked downstream by raging currents and of farmers clinging for life to partially submerged barbed-wire fences. Some survivors have had to relocate to the only accessible dry patches they could find: the roofs of their homes, where they have spent days without food or water while waiting to be rescued.
It's Pakistan's Katrina.
The United Nations said that about a million people across Pakistan will need assistance....
That is MIND-BOGGLING on top of the MILLIONS of WAR REFUGEES!
The US Embassy in Islamabad announced yesterday that the United States would donate $10 million toward disaster relief efforts and would provide more money if requested.
Never mind that our nation is crumbling and we are bankrupt.
Maybe the $10 mil could come out of the drone missile budget, huh?
The United States, which is deeply unpopular in Pakistan, has also supplied helicopters, boats, prefabricated steel bridges, and more than 100,000 meals.
Yeah, well, when you rain missiles down on people and destroy their homes and families over a lie that is going to happen.
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This was also washed away in the coverage of the torrents:
"Two die in clashes despite curfew in Indian Kashmir" by Associated Press | August 1, 2010
SRINAGAR, India — Violence continued to rage across Indian Kashmir yesterday with two people shot dead and five wounded after police in two towns opened fire on protesters who attacked their camps and pelted them with rocks.
I see India is behaving more like Israel all the time.
A curfew was ordered one day after four people were killed and another 80 wounded as government forces fired on thousands of protesters across the troubled region.
The recent tension in the Himalayan region — divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both — is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict.
Yeah, it's all the protesters fault, yup.
About 68,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians, in the conflict.
And MOSTLY MUSLIMS!
The mostly Muslim region, where resistance to rule by predominantly Hindu India is strong, has spent most of the past six weeks under curfew following violent street demonstrations by Kashmiri Muslims and strikes ordered by separatist groups.
Then why are they the ones lying there dead?
Six deaths in two days raised the number of people killed in clashes to 23 in the past six weeks.
Thousands defied the curfew to protest yesterday, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. At least 10 people were wounded, he said.
We could learn something from Muslims, America.
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Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Chaos in Kashmir
