Disasters & Accidents

‘Monster monsoon’ kills over 900 in Pakistan flash floods

Charsadda, Pakistan, Aug 27 (EFE-EPA).- Over 900 people have died in Pakistan since mid-June following a season of heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across the country, the National Disaster Management Authority reported on Saturday.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department issued a warning on Friday that the “river Indus at Kalabagh and Chasma may attain high to very high flood level ranging between 5,50,000 Cusecs to 7,00,000 Cusecs from 1200PST 27-08-2022 to 1200 PST of 28-08-2022.”

The interior minister on Saturday confirmed that the Pakistani army had been deployed in all four provinces to assist local governments with the emergency.

“The flood situation is being continuously monitored from the control room established in the Ministry of Interior,” minister Rana Sanaullah said in a statement.

“Flood-affected people will not be left alone, saving human lives is the first priority,” the politician added.

More than 33 million people have been affected by floods, Pakistan’s climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, said.

“No one thought rainfall averages would go through the roof this high or so unrelentingly, inundating the south, and now rivers rising dangerously in the north of Pakistan,” Senator Rehman said on Twitter.

Rehman also shared data published by the met office showing that during the month of August the Sindh (southeast) and Balochistan (southwest) provinces presented large deviations from average expected rainfall.

“Our cities are not designed for such torrential downpours without a break,” the climate minister warned.

The United Nations-backed World Meteorological Organization on Saturday shared a shocking video of the collapse of a hotel in the Swat District (northwest).

“We are, at the moment, at the ground zero, the frontline, of extreme weather events in an unrelenting cascade of heat waves, forest fires, multiple glacial lake outbursts, flood events, and now, the monster monsoon of the decade is wreaking nonstop havoc throughout the country,” Rehman warned on Friday. EFE-EPA

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