Death Toll From Pakistan's Flash Floods Climbs To 157

Arab Times

3 days ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed over 280 people in India and Pakistan and left scores of others missing, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries.
In Pakistan, a helicopter carrying relief supplies to the flood-hit northwestern Bajaur region crashed due to bad weather, killing all five people on board, including two pilots, a government statement said.
And devastating floods in India led to the suspension of an annual Hindu pilgrimage and the evacuation of thousands of pilgrims.
Cloudbursts — sudden, intense downpours over small areas — are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, and can wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides.
Experts say cloudbursts have increased partly because of climate change, while storm damage has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
Top leaders in both countries offered their condolences to the victims' families and assured them of swift relief.
Dozens missing in remote Himalayan village
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said.
At least 300 people were rescued Thursday after a powerful cloudburst triggered floods and landslides, but the operation was halted overnight. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away, and the number of missing could increase.
Harvinder Singh, a resident, joined the rescue efforts immediately after the disaster and helped retrieve 33 bodies from under mud, he said.
At least 50 seriously injured people were treated at hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris.
Chositi, in Kashmir's Kishtwar district, is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet). Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to end Sept. 5, was suspended.
The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen for pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the foothills, officials said.
Sneha, who gave only one name, said her husband and a daughter were swept away — the two were having meals at the community kitchen while she and her son were nearby. The family had come for the pilgrimage, she said.
Authorities erected makeshift bridges Friday to help stranded pilgrims cross a muddy water channel and used dozens of earthmovers to shift boulders, uprooted trees, electricity poles and other debris. Nearly 4,000 pilgrims were evacuated, officials said.
Photos and videos on social media showed household goods strewn next to damaged vehicles and homes in the village.
Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region's fragile ecosystem.