Pakistan cyclone leaves 21 dead, 250,000 homeless
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday June 27, 9:29 PM
*Pakistan cyclone leaves 21 dead, 250,000 homeless*
Pakistani rescuers struggled Wednesday to reach 250,000 people left
homeless, and in some cases clinging to rooftops and trees, by a cyclone
that lashed the coast and killed 21 people.
Cyclone Yemyin roared in from the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, days after
thunderstorms left around 230 people dead in Karachi and nearly 150
people were killed by rains in neighbouring India.
The UN said the destruction in South Asia -- plus floods in Britain and
heatwaves in southern Europe -- showed that the world must be better
prepared to cope with the impact of climate change.
"The cyclone and the rain have left around 250,000 people homeless,"
Khuda Bakhsh Baloch, the relief commissioner of badly-hit Baluchistan
province, told AFP, adding that dozens of villages were under water.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the immediate airlift of
blankets, food, tents and medicine because several main highways had
been badly damaged, an official statement said.
Telephone links were down to most of the affected region but residents
who could be contacted in Kechh, one of Baluchistan's worst affected
districts, said they had seen no sign of aid-bearing helicopters.
"The situation is grave here. People including women and children have
been clinging on to trees and rooftops since late Tuesday," Jahangir
Aslam, from the town of Turbat, told AFP.
He said water in the area's main dam had reached dangerous levels.
"We are hungry, we are thirsty, the authorities say they are sending
helicopters but we have not seen any," said Hamal Baloch, also from Kechh.
Authorities said they were trying to get supplies to more than 1,300 car
and bus passengers who were stranded when swollen rivers washed away
bridges on two key roads.
Continuing rain was hampering aid efforts, said provincial government
spokesman Raziq Bugti. "People need more assistance. We have relief
helicopters ready but the weather is not permitting," he said.
Bugti said 12 people had been confirmed killed so far in Baluchistan but
added: "I think the casualties may be high."
In Karachi, one person was electrocuted by power lines brought down by
the cyclone overnight, hospital officials said. Officials say another
eight have been killed in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
Rescuers were also trying to evacuate thousands of people from fishing
villages on islands off the Sindh coast, local fishermen's association
leader Siraj Khoro said. Dozens of fishermen are still missing, he said.
Meteorological department chief Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry said the weather
was improving after the cyclone moved northwest into Iran overnight.
Cyclone Yemyin is the second major storm of the north Indian Ocean
cyclone season after Cyclone Gonu hit Oman, Iran and southwestern
Pakistan in early June, killing more than 60 people.
UN disaster prevention official Salvano Briceno said in Geneva that the
recent extreme weather in Pakistan and elsewhere was only a taste of
what could happen in future through global warming.
"We cannot wait to be taken by surprise, we know what is going to happen
and we can prepare for it," he added.