“Monster monsoons” in Pakistan have swept away lives, homes, crops and bridges as weeks of historic summer rain have fueled flash floods that have killed more than 1,000.
And an estimated $10 billion of damage done.
“Monster monsoons” in Pakistan have swept away lives, homes, crops and bridges as weeks of historic summer rain fuels deadly flash floods. Almost half a million people have been displaced, with vast areas cut off from supplies and power.
Footage shared with NBC News shows torrents sweeping away multi-storied buildings and inundating people up to their necks.
Experts and local officials have drawn a direct line to man-made climate change, saying it illustrates how countries with the lowest contributions to the global crisis are becoming increasingly vulnerable to its effects — and in dire need of urgent aid.
On Tuesday, the United Nations issued a flash appeal for emergency funds, urging the world to give the South Asian nation its attention and aid.
“It was not less than a doomsday for us,” Asghar Ali, a 56-year-old farmer who was forced to leave his home in the northern town of Charsadda last Friday, told NBC News.
“Thousands of people just didn’t have time to shift precious households to safe places,” said Ali, who now lives in a makeshift shelter alongside the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway with his livestock.
“We saved our lives but the houses filled with floodwater. Life here on the motorway is a curse,” he added.
Pakistan’s government has said over 33 million people in the South Asian nation, around 15 % of the population, have been affected by the extreme weather.
