Army helicopters evacuate 550 people stranded in flood-hit areas: ISPR
ISLAMABAD/SUKKUR - The torrential monsoon rains across the country on Wednesday continued claiming further lives and inflicting losses to property as the total death count in various incidents reached 1,302 with 36 more deaths in past 24 hours and 3,554 individuals got injured since the onset of the rainy season.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued a 24-hour situation report released on routine basis that accounted overall life, property, and infrastructure losses incurred by the heavy rains lashing out various parts of the country.
The heavy rains and flash floods caused deaths of four women and a man in Kachhi district of Balochistan.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine persons perished due to roof collapse and flash floods in various districts including two men and a child in Upper Kohistan, a man in Karak, two men in Dera Ismail Khan, a man each in South Waziristan, Hangu and Lower Dir.
However, four people were reported as injured including two children in Upper Kohistan, one man in Dera Ismail Khan, and one in Upper Chitral due to the flash floods. The data reconciled by the NDMA mentioned that the segregated data of death of 19 persons was confirmed by the PDMA Punjab. In Sindh, three men perished in Dadu.
In Gilgit Baltistan (GB), N–35 highway was closed due to landslide at Zaid Khur at 288 Kilometers (Km) patch including road section and bridge approaches damaged, Uchar Nullah Bridge at 303Km, Lutar at 323 to approximately 340 Km whereas traffic moving
through alternate route of N-15.
In Balochistan, two routes were blocked as the high flow of water blocked including the
M-8: (100–140 km) as land sliding occurred in 24 Km Long section of Wangu hills and the road was closed for all types of traffic whereas N-65 Pinjra Bridge (Bolan River) 45 meter span washed out by flash floods.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four connectivity routes were blocked including N-95: (Madyan) blocked at Behrain - Laikot (27 km) and Laikot – Kalam (8km), N-50 was blocked at 486 km which was blocked for all types of traffic at Saggu Bridge, N-35 was blocked at three locations 288 Km (Mata, Banda, Zaid Khad Nala) and N-55 Kotri – Larkana – DG Khan – DI Khan – Kohat – Peshawar Road was blocked for all types of traffic at Paroa near Dera Ismail Khan.
Moreover, 18 joint survey teams of NDMA had reached respective locations at; Quetta along with a provincial coordination team, for joint survey and damage assessment in flood affected areas, Pishin, Loralai, Dukki, Jaffarabad, Sohbatpur, Nasirabad, Kohlu, Barkhan and Lasbella, Awaran, Musakhel, Gawadar, Qilla Saifullah, Ziarat, Qila Abdullah and Khuzdar. The Armed Forces Army aviation undertook 39 sorties with 10 helicopters including 33 in KP, 5 in Punjab and one in Sindh, rescued 505 stranded persons and distributed of 23.2 tons of food and relief items among flood affected people.
The report highlighted that mainly dry weather was expected over most parts of the country. However, isolated thunderstorm and rain was expected over Upper catchment areas of all major rivers alongwith Northeast Balochistan, Southeastern Sindh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore Divisions. ‘Army helicopters in flood-hit areas’
The Army Aviation helicopters in its exclusive relief efforts conducted 140 sorties in flood affected areas of the country for rescue and relief operation.
The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a news release on Wednesday said more than 550 stranded individuals were evacuated through army helicopters from various flood affected areas.
Moreover, the army helicopters delivered 29 tonnes of ration and relief items during the last 24 hours.
It also helped in 6,140 ration packets and 325 tents distribution among flood affectees all across the county during the last 24 hours.
Some, 5,213 patients were treated so far in various medical camps and 224 relief items collection points were functional in Formations Area of Responsibility for collection and onwards distribution of relief stores. ‘Lurking health crisis’
Local and international health officials have said that waterborne diseases could spread rapidly under the current conditions. Hundreds of clinics have been damaged and many survivors are unable to reach doctors. Officials in Pakistan as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday that a health crisis could follow the devastating floods in the country. “WHO is working with health authorities to respond quickly and effectively on the ground,” said Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the WHO representative in Pakistan. “Our key priorities now are to ensure rapid access to essential health services to the flood-affected population, (to) strengthen and expand disease surveillance, outbreak prevention and control, and ensure robust health cluster coordination.’’
On top of the 888 clinics and hospitals damaged or destroyed by the flooding, the damage to infrastructure has also made reaching health services more difficult.
