The true scale of this season’s monsoon’s fury stood out horribly when sudden spells of torrential rains on Monday deluged different parts of the country. However hard and unrelenting they are, what is perturbing is that this cataclysmic weather pattern had been warned by meteorologist, (besides, they happen each year during a specific period) which ought to have alerted the authorities to at least prevent things from going as uncontrolled as they do at the moment.
Rawalpindi and Islamabad received more than 200 mm of rain in just a matter of hours followed by Peshawar, Gujranwala, parts of Balochistan and Punjab also receiving their fair share of the downpour. Already scores of thousands of people have been displaced.
For Rawalpindi in particular, this was something unusual because this much rain only spells a disaster and it sure did; life was virtually paralysed. The people were seen on rooftops, others struggling to make it to some place of safety, while the emergency situation apparently threw the civil administration and the NDMA into confusion. Leh which is a tributary used to funnel the floods out of the city is already overflowing its banks, it seems another gush of monsoon might turn out to be too much for it to bear. As a precautionary measure rescue personnel have been deployed alongside its banks. Also the locals have been asked to evacuate and rightly so since any breach of the embankments -- which very much is a possibility -- can result in a disaster.
As of now Peshawar and Gujranwala also seem ravaged, just as much as Rivers Sindh and Chenab have swelled to the brim inundating many villages and towns close to the banks. Deaths have been reported as well. The threat of more devastation is a real possibility for parts of the south and central Punjab since into River Sutlej has been released extra water by India on Monday that would only exacerbate the already dreadful situation. The bleak scenario cries out for quick help.