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1,100 Dead in Pakistan’s Floods, Including 380 Children

1,100 Dead in Pakistan’s Floods, Including 380 Children
folder_openPakistan access_timeone year ago
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By Staff, Agencies

A third of Pakistan is submerged from torrential rains and flooding, which left more than 1,100 people dead, including 380 children as the United Nations appealed for aid on Tuesday for what it described as an “unprecedented climate catastrophe.”

Army helicopters plucked stranded families and dropped food packages to inaccessible areas as the historic deluge – triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains – impacted 33 million people in the south Asian nation. 

The country got nearly 190 percent more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter through August 2022, totaling 15.38 inches.

Sindh province was the hardest hit, getting 466 percent more rain than the three-decade average.

"One-third of the country is literally underwater," Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman told Reuters, describing the scale of the disaster as "a catastrophe of unknown precedent.”

She said the water was not going to recede anytime soon.

At least 380 children were among the dead, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told reporters.

"Pakistan is awash in suffering," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will head to Islamabad next week to see the effects of the “climate catastrophe.”

"The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding,” he said.

Nearly 300 stranded people, including tourists, were airlifted in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, while over 50,000 people were moved to two government shelters in the northwest.

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