'Water came with a big noise'
2005-02-14 15:03
Pasni, Pakistan - Pakistan's death toll from a week of heavy rain and snow topped 350 on Monday, as authorities tried to haul badly needed relief supplies to flood-swamped villages in the country's southwest.
Hungry survivors huddled on high ground in the worst-hit province of Baluchistan, after their homes and livestock were swept away three days ago when a dam burst. At least a thousand people were still missing.
Officials said a second, smaller dam collapsed elsewhere in the province on Sunday, killing seven people, while scores more casualties from avalanches and landslides were reported in the northwest and the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Four thousand troops supported by helicopters, coast guard boats and C-130 transport planes hauled food, medicine and tents to Pasni, close to where the 150m-long Shadikor Dam burst on Thursday, sweeping people into the Arabian Sea. The Red Crescent sent tents, blankets, tarpaulins and 40 tonnes of food.
Downstream from the dam, nine small villages - home to about 900 people - were swept away. Regional authorities say at least 200 people died in the flooding across Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest and poorest province.
"The water started flowing very fast and with a big noise," said Mohammed Rafiq, a 30-year-old shepherd, who moved his family to higher land as floodwaters rose. "The water washed away our homes, our goats and cattle."
The water level has since dropped, but huge tracts along the coast remain submerged. Reporters travelling by military helicopter could see vehicles stranded on the coastal road to Pasni, where at least two bridges had collapsed.
Four medical camps have been set up around the town, 1 900km southwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Lieutenant Commander Noor Ahmed, a navy doctor, said the camps had treated about 300 people - including a 26-year-old woman, Gul Bibi, who gave birth on Friday to a healthy boy.
Ahmed said the main problem for villagers now was a shortage of drinking water.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, weeklong rains - the heaviest in years - and avalanches in the mountains have claimed scores of lives. In North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, more than 100 people are confirmed to have died, chief minister Akram Khan Durrani said.
The death toll in Pakistan-held portion of Kashmir reached 56 when 18 more deaths were reported on Sunday. Two soldiers were killed by avalanche at a remote outpost, and 16 civilians were buried by snow in their homes in the Neelum Valley.
- AP