Pakistan: Troops evacuate thousands in flood disaster
SUKKUR, (Dawn): Pakistani troops, spearheading relief efforts in the worst floods in 80 years, evacuated several thousand people in two provinces overnight after flood waters burst through river embankments, an official said on Sunday.
The biggest floods in 80 years have killed over 1,600 people, disrupted 12 million lives and ruined many crops vital for the agriculture-based economy.
Saleh Farooqui, director general of the National Disaster Management Authority in Sindh province, told Reuters up to 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in Punjab province, and several thousand in Sindh. Rescue efforts are still under way.
Floodwaters have roared down from as far away as Afghanistan and India through the northwest to the agricultural heartland of Punjab and on to southern Sindh along a trail more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long.
Heavy rain is expected to lash the country again raising the prospect that more homes and crops will be swept away.
Many people are still stranded. Others have been evacuated from their villages but are living out in the open, with little food or drinking water.
SUKKUR, (Dawn): Pakistani troops, spearheading relief efforts in the worst floods in 80 years, evacuated several thousand people in two provinces overnight after flood waters burst through river embankments, an official said on Sunday.
The biggest floods in 80 years have killed over 1,600 people, disrupted 12 million lives and ruined many crops vital for the agriculture-based economy.
Saleh Farooqui, director general of the National Disaster Management Authority in Sindh province, told Reuters up to 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in Punjab province, and several thousand in Sindh. Rescue efforts are still under way.
Floodwaters have roared down from as far away as Afghanistan and India through the northwest to the agricultural heartland of Punjab and on to southern Sindh along a trail more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long.
Heavy rain is expected to lash the country again raising the prospect that more homes and crops will be swept away.
Many people are still stranded. Others have been evacuated from their villages but are living out in the open, with little food or drinking water.
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