Filed Under: Flood, Weather, Disasters (general), Evacuation(General), Foreign Aid, Relief & Aid Organisations
THATTA—Pakistan ordered nearly half a million people to evacuate towns on Thursday as rising floods threaten further havoc in a country straining to cope with its worst humanitarian disaster.
Torrential monsoon rains triggered massive floods affecting a fifth of the volatile country – an area roughly the size of England – where a US official warned that foreign aid workers are at risk from Taliban attacks.
Villagers in the south fled from where the Indus delta merges with the Arabian Sea, trailing north in vans laden with furniture or crowded into buses, or in carts pulled by oxen. Some people were on foot, leading their livestock.
Water lined the road from Hyderabad to Thatta town, as workers frantically used bulldozers to dig embankments only just higher than the flooding, and where people camped out under open skies or in makeshift tents.
The catastrophe has already affected more than 17 million people and left eight million dependent on aid to survive.
The Pakistani government has confirmed that 1,600 people have been killed and 2,366 wounded, but officials warn that millions are at risk from diseases and food shortages.
Coppied by http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100827-288993/Pakistan-orders-nearly-half-a-million-to-evacuate
No comments:
Post a Comment