Rain rampage continues

Ag Agencies

PESHAWAR/KARACHI/LAHORE: Rains continued wreaking havoc on the country during the past 24 hours.

Life was paralysed in Karachi, various districts of Sindh as well as parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Electricity could not be restored in most parts of Karachi, and mobile telephone networks were rendered dysfunctional.

At least 47 people were killed in Sindh, 16 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and eight across Punjab in rain-related incidents, as moderate-to-heavy showers continued lashing parts of the three provinces.

Dwellers of Pakistan's largest city Friday found themselves with little means to contact family, friends and co-workers as a breakdown of mobile data and phone services caused by extended electricity outages added to their woes a day after heavy rains wreaked havoc in Karachi.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told a news conference at least 47 people had lost their lives in rain-related incidents in the current spell so far.

The outages were doubly frustrating for some as K-Electric, Karachi’s only electricity supply utility, struggled to restore electricity to large parts of the city more than 20 hours after the first rain fell. The national telecom regulator informed on Friday that cellular services in the city were not blocked and outages faced by users were due to the prolonged power breakdown.

Talking to Geo.tv, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesperson Khurram Mehran said, "Due to prolonged power failure in the city, many towers are out of service and their generators are shut because there's no fuel to power them."

The KE warned that restoration work may take longer than expected time as the situation remains 'difficult’. Meanwhile, Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy, under their ongoing relief and rescue operations, established the flood emergency control centres in the affected areas of Karachi.

According to the ISPR, medical camps have been established at Gulberg, Liaquatabad and New Karachi areas in Central district and also in other districts. Also cooked meal was also being distributed among 10,000 flood victims. People could contact the Army Flood Control Centres via phone numbers 012-34491082, 021-99247267 and 021-99207795.

De-watering of 36 sites in Karachi had also been ensured.

Enhancement of small sized dam along M9 near Northern Bypass was further ensured by Pakistan Army Engineers coupled with de-watering of KE grid station, Saadi Town and Malir Cantonment located in the vicinity as to not only avert inundation but also protect the facilities exposed to serious risks.

Pakistan Army also filled the breach in Malir River bund, the army engineers constructed makeshift dams as barriers to protect residential areas at risk of being inundated.

Pakistan Navy Emergency Response team divers recovered two bodies from Shah Faisal Town and Korangi crossing, while 55 individuals were evacuated from flooded areas of Malir and Korangi crossing.

Rescue teams also evacuated 20 families stranded in Sammo Goth and shifted them to safe place.

Also, Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah Friday visited rain-hit areas of Karachi to inspect rescue operation after rain inundated different areas of the city.

The CM visited Nursery on Shahrah-e-Faisal, Nagan Chowrangi and other parts of the city. He directed the managing director of Karachi and Sewerage Water Board to review the master plan regarding dealing with rain related incidents and submit report as early as possible.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Friday issued weather advisory based on the prevailing hydro-meteorological conditions over Pakistan from August 29-31. According to the PMD, another monsoon rain bearing system is likely to enter Sindh on Saturday, Aug 29.

Under the influence of the meteorological system, rain/wind-thundershowers, with isolated heavy to very heavy falls, are expected in Sindh districts including Karachi from Saturday to Monday. Rain-thundershowers with isolated heavy falls are expected in Balochistan regions also during Sunday and Monday.

In KP, the floods caused by heavy rains continued to batter various areas of the province on Friday, causing several casualties and damage to properties.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), in a communiqué, said that 16 people were killed and many injured as flash floods caused by heavy rains and cloudburst hit Swat, Upper Kohistan and Shangla. Eight people died in Upper Kohistan, six in Swat and two in Shangla due to the flash floods. Fifteen people drowned in flash floods in Shagram and Terat areas of Madain in Swat district where nine persons were injured as well. The bodies of four people identified as Palwasha, wife of Ijaz, Rizwan, son of Ali Jan, Tanzeela, daughter of Ali Jan, and Samiullah, son of Bakht Shah Rawan were fished out while the Rescue-1122 teams were searching for the missing persons.

Those missing included Sarhad Shah, son of Ibrahim Shah, Sher Muhammad, son of Pir Jan, Samana, daughter of Pir Jan, Nazmina, daughter of Pir Jan, Sheerina, wife of Bakht Shah Rawan, Said Muhammad, son of Pir Jan. Nine people identified as Said Ahmad, Ijaz, Imran, Shahid Ali, Jamil, Akbar Ali, Muhammad Rahim, Razia and Saba were injured in the floods and shifted to Saidu Sharif Hospital for treatment. The flash floods also destroyed 45 houses, two school buildings and three link bridges in the area. Malakand Commissioner Syed Zaheerul Islam along with Member Provincial Assembly Mian Sharafat Ali, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Ijaz Khan, Deputy Commissioner Saqib Raza Aslam and District Police Officer Qasim Ali Khan visited the affected areas and met the affected families.

The commissioner said the chief minister had announced Rs500,000 for each dead and 100,000 for each injured.

About 80 rescuers of 1122, five ambulances, water rescue team, recovery vehicle and disaster rescue vehicle are taking part in the operation. Eight persons, including seven of a family mostly women were killed when flash floods wreaked havoc in Upper Kohistan. Scores of houses were damaged in different parts of the district.

"The Karakoram Highway has been blocked at three points and dozens of villages were inundated in different parts of the district. The rescue and rehabilitation operation was started with the support of Frontier Works Organisation and police," Arif Yousafzai, the deputy commissioner of Upper Kohistan, told the media.

The DC said a large number of families were affected because of the natural calamity in Sazeen, Kanida Tehsil, Harban and Dasu tehsil of the district. "We have fished out bodies of a woman and her three children and search for their three other family members is in progress as this family was swept away after their house caved-in during flooding in Lachi Nullah in Sazeen village," Yousufzai said.

He said that FWO was busy in clearing Karakoram Highway that was blocked at three points for all sort of traffic because of the heavy landslide and soil erosion. "We are adopting measures for the early clearance of KKH and providing relief items to families displaced in various villages because of the flooding," the DC added.

According to PDMA, 40 houses were damaged fully and 26 partially in the flooding. The authority has dispatched relief items, including tents and food, to the affected areas in Swat, Chitral, Shangla and Kohistan.

In Punjab, at least eight people were killed across province in rain-related incidents during the past 24 hours.

In Lahore, a house roof collapsed in Afzal Colony due to heavy rains, resulting in death of four people. The victims were identified as Azmat, Khalil, Aif and an unidentified man.

One of the deceased belonged to Karak while three people were from Buner.

In another incident, taking place at Rahbar Adda, the roof of a house collapsed, injuring four people. Two were given first aid, while two others were shifted to Jinnah Hospital.

In Sialkot, a 22-year-old man, Ibrahim, son of Shafique, drowned in Aik Nullah near Rawailgarha village. Another unidentified man drowned in Jammu Tavi River near village Chaprar. Efforts to fish out the bodies were under way by Rescue-1122.

Three separate incidents of roof and wall collapses caused injuries to three persons, who were shifted to local hospitals.

From Wednesday to Friday noon, the Sialkot district received heavy-to-moderate rains, affecting the civic life and inundating the city localities. The rains have increased water level in the rivers and nullahs flowing in Sialkot district.

According to official sources on Friday, the flow of water in Chenab River at Maral Headworks was 167,844 cusecs and water level was receding. The water level in Jammu Tavi River (11,868 cusecs) and Munawar Tavi River (9,211 cusecs) was also receding. The flow of water in Dek Nullah was reported at 285 cusecs and level was receding.

Nullah Aik and Nullah Bhed, both passing through Sialkot city, had medium and high floods, respectively with flow of water at 11,897 and 2,760 cusecs. Nullah Palkhu, which passes by the Cantonment area, was also having high flood with flow of water at 4,585 cusecs. Heavy floodwater caused damage to a bridge at Palkhu Nullah near Bhoth village.

According to Gujranwala correspondent, two children were killed and another injured in a roof collapse incident in Wazirabad.

Children of Muhammad Shafiq were sleeping in their house when the roof collapsed due to rain. Resultantly, Nayab, 10, and his brother Attiqur Rehman, 8, died on-the-spot, while their sister Seema, 2, was injured.

According to PMD, Rain-thundershowers may also occur in Punjab (Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Khanpur, Rajanpur, DG Khan, Multan, Khanewal and Sahiwal) during the period.