Floods strand thousands in Pakistan
Thousands of people were stranded on rooftops and tree branches today as cyclone-spawned floods surged through towns and villages of Pakistan’s coastline.
Off the coast in the storm-tossed Arabian Sea, navy warships and helicopters continued to search for missing vessels, having rescued about 125 crewmen from floundering craft, said navy and Maritime Security Agency spokesmen.
Helicopters and speed boats were also in demand to help hundreds of people on five cut-off islands lying some 100 miles south-east of Karachi, said Sami Memon, president of the Fisherfolk Forum, a fishermen’s welfare body.
In Karachi, the country’s largest city, five people were electrocuted yesterday by falling electricity lines that had earlier been battered by rains and thunderstorms, according to official reports.
Cyclone Yemyin struck the coastline of Baluchistan province yesterday, killing at least 10 people, including four children, said Raziq Bugti, spokesman for the provincial government. Others were believed lost at sea, but no estimates were available.
In the Baluchistan city of Turbat and surrounding villages, as many as 10,000 people were driven from their homes by rising waters from the Kech River and a nearby dam, said Mayor Abdul Rauf Riand.
The mayor of the city said he has requested urgent aid for residents who escaped the flooding by climbing on the roofs of concrete houses and mosques as well as treetops. Turbat has a population of 150,000.
The aid would have to be ferried in by helicopter because roads in the area had been severed and bridges destroyed, he said.
Located to the east on the same Arabian Sea coastline, Karachi suffered torrential rains and thunderstorms, which killed at least 228 people Saturday. City authorities continued to grapple with electricity shortages caused by power lines that were snapped by falling trees, pylons and billboards.
Before the cyclone hit land, warnings of coastal flooding prompted many to flee in panic.
