One million homeless in Pakistan
Pastor Dale Morgan
One million homeless in Pakistan*
· Cyclone claims 90 lives, but figure expected to rise
· Helicopters and aid planes unable to reach victims
Chiade O'Shea
Saturday June 30, 2007
The Guardian
Pakistan struggled to provide disaster relief to one million people left
homeless by Cyclone Yemyin yesterday, as bad weather continued to ground
many military rescue helicopters and aid planes.
Pakistan's normally arid Baluchistan province was the worst affected by
the tropical storm, which has killed 500 people across south Asia this
week, with some districts receiving four times their annual rainfall in
24 hours.
"It is almost impossible to move around by road and many of our choppers
and aircraft can't fly because of the wind and rain," said Major General
Waheed Arshad, spokesman for the Pakistani military.
Eleven helicopters were deployed and C-130 military transport planes
made five supply flights yesterday. Flights laden with food, water and
blankets returned packed with people plucked from the roofs of their
homes and the domes of mosques.
"Our whole neighbourhood is flooded. We took refuge on high ground then
a helicopter got us," farmer Atta Muhammad told Reuters after arriving
in Sibi town. "We've lost everything. Our houses are under water, we've
got nothing to eat," he said. People were forced to flee the rising
water on camels, in cars and on foot.
Navy helicopters continued searching for sailors stranded at sea after
rescuing 75 drifting in four ships earlier this week.
Yesterday, 10 people drowned, including four children, Raziq Bugti,
spokesman for the Baluch provincial government, told Reuters.
"The official death toll in Pakistan is 90, but the unofficial one is
250," said Farooq Ahmed Khan, head of the national disaster management
authority. Reports of deaths and injuries were expected to rise as
communications networks, severely disrupted by the floods, were
restored. Government officials said a million people had been affected,
and most had been made homeless. In the Gwadar district, on the
south-west coast, the majority of the 120,000 residents fled. Police in
Turbat city, which was cut off by floodwater, fired teargas yesterday at
protesters enraged by a lack of emergency aid.
As forecasts showed storms moving towards the north-western border with
Afghanistan, Mr Khan said residents had been told to leave low-lying
areas near the Kabul river. Meteorological offices warned of more
downpours tomorrow, with tens of thousands of people on the east coast
of India fleeing the path of another storm heading in from the Bay of
Bengal.