Peshawar:
The rescuers in the districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), devastated by the floods, scratched the mud and the debris on Saturday when the sudden floods were unleashed for days of heavy monsoon rains killed at least 344 people in the province within 48 hours, the authorities said.
The National Authority for Disaster Management (NDMA) confirmed that 324 of the deaths were reported in KP, with more murdered dozens in Azad Jammu and Cashmira and Gilgit-Baltistan. At least 137 people were injured when houses collapsed and water torrents swept residents, cattle and vehicles.
The authorities said that the devastation scale forced the provincial government to declare six districts: Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra and Battagram, affected by the disaster. Thousands of houses were destroyed and the key roads, including bridges and link routes, were dragged, complicated rescue and help operations.
“Heavy rains, landslides and torn roads are severely hindering rescue efforts, particularly the transport of heavy machinery and ambulances,” Bilal Ahmed Faizi, spokesman for the KP rescue agency, said KP rescue agency.
“In some areas, workers are forced to walk long distances to reach disaster sites,” he said. “They are trying to evacuate survivors, but very few people move due to the death that their relatives or loved ones are trapped in the rubble.”
The attached commissioner of the district of Buner, Kashif Qayum Khan, also said that rescuers were forced to find new ways of reaching remote areas. “Many more people can still be trapped under the rubble, that local residents cannot clearly clear,” Khan told AFP.
Almost 2,000 rescue personnel have been deployed, but the authorities warned that many victims can still be trapped under debris in remote villages.
Only in the Shangla district, the authorities confirmed 37 deaths, with several people who are still missing. Torrential floods, rays and landslides left hundreds of injured and flattened houses and displaced entire communities.
Eleven more people were killed in AJK, and another nine in GB, authorities said. Five more were killed when a local government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a relief mission in the Bajaur district on Friday.
The Department of Meteorology has also issued a strong rain alert for the regions of the Northwest, urging people to take “caution measures.”
Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah of NDMA told AFP that this year’s Monzón season began before usual and was expected to end later. It would also increase in intensity during the next fortnight, he added.
In Buner, an AFP journalist saw three excavators cleaning the mud and wood from the completely flattened site, while dozens of rescuers and residents also dug into the rubble.
Others clarified heavy rocks with their hands and shovels. “People are still lying under the rubble … Those who were swept are being sought in search of downstream,” said Resident Abdul Khan.
Floods also destroyed cattle, stores and vehicles, while key roads such as Alpuri – Bisham, Alpuri – Puran and Alpuri – Chekesar were very damaged. Although some were temporarily reopened on Saturday, access to remote areas remains cut.
The residents told about the funerals that are carried out in devastated villages, where the survivors continue to seek through the debris by hand. “I helped recover the bodies of the children I taught,” said Saifullah Khan, a school teacher in Buner. “Trauma is unbearable.”
Another villager in Buner told AFP residents that they were still looking for debris during the night.
“The whole area is staggering for deep trauma,” said 32 -year -old Saifullah Khan school teacher. “I help recover the bodies of the children I taught, I still ask me what type of proof nature has imposed on these children,” he said.
The NDMA said that the rains of the torrential monsoon in Pakistan have killed more than 650 people so far this season, with 905 injured. The agency warned that the downpours, which began earlier this year, continue with greater intensity during the next fortnight.
The monsoon floods in southern Asia bring much of the annual rainfall of the region, vital for agriculture but devastating when they are extreme. Pakistan, among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, has faced increasingly frequent and intense climatic events. In 2022, the floods submerged a third of the country and killed about 1,700 people.
Provincial authorities said aid operations are underway, with a heavy equipment that move to clear roads and restoring connectivity. The president of PDMA visited Shangla on Saturday, urging officials to accelerate aid and rehabilitation.
The KP Prime Minister is expected to visit the areas affected by floods on Sunday to review the damage and announce more measures.
The torrential rains that have hit Pakistan since the beginning of the summer monzón, described as “unusual” by the authorities, have killed more than 650 people, with more than 905 injured.
In July, Punjab registered 73 percent more rain than the previous year and more deaths than throughout the previous monsoon.
Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world for the effects of climate change and is affirmed with extreme climatic events with a growing frequency. The floods of the monsoon in 2022 submerged a third of the country and killed about 1,700 people.
(With additional contributions from agencies)
