KARACHI, PAKISTAN: The government ordered the evacuation of 500,000 people in southern Pakistan bracing for flash floods that have already killed hundreds of people and destroyed homes, livestock and crops. At least 650 people died in heavy rain and flash floods that swept across northern and eastern Pakistan last week, the government said. English and Urdu language newspapers put the death toll as high as 1,800.
The churning flood waters on Monday started to spill into the Indus River that cuts through southern Sindh Province, The river was expected to crest on Wednesday or Thursday, officials said,
The provincial government placed an estimated 50,000 troops on high alert and declared a state of emergency in Sukkur, Larkana and Dadu, three of Sindh’s most flood-prone districts.
It also ordered the army to evacuate an estimated 300 adobe villages home to about 500,000 people along the river banks and lo set up relief shelters.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, called the floods a “national tragedy” and gave a preliminary damage estimate of $105 million, Officials in affected provinces said that amount was too low.
In western Punjab, where most of Pakistan’s 120 million people live, Officials said the flood had caused at least $600 million in damage to Property, crops and livestock.
Sharif announced a special grant of $50 million for victims, many of whom are sleeping atop their flooded homes.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1992
