Pakistan flood volume with maps, photos and videos

Maxar Technologies released satellite images of Rogan, in the state of Punjab, before and during floods that showed entire communities isolated.

As Pakistan grapples with the loss of housing and farmland as well as the risk of disease, many fear that the country’s humanitarian catastrophe is just beginning.

190 percent more precipitation than usual

Exceptional rains began across Pakistan in June after months of historical heat waves and little rainfall.

The ground was dry and loose due to the record heat, causing landslides across the country. The melting of the glaciers led to floods.

Rainfall increased with the onset of the monsoon season In July, which became the wettest on record since 1961, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Pakistan experienced eight rounds of heavy rain in the monsoon season, about twice the normal amount. The country saw 190 percent more precipitation than average from the beginning of June to the end of August. As the Indus swelled from constant rainfall and glaciers melted, the low-lying areas were devastated.

The past two weeks have brought more rain to the southern region of Pakistan.

Satellite images from August 28 to August 30 showed visible areas of flooding.

Balochistan and Sindh provinces saw 410 percent and 466 percent fall above average respectively from early June to August 29. The floods that followed destroyed cities and turned life upside down.

“It has been raining in my village for the past two months,” said Zahid Ali Jalani, a 35-year-old farmer in the Khairpur district of Sindh who spoke to The Washington Post by phone. After a canal erupted last week, his village was inundated overnight, with water levels as high as 10 feet in some areas. Across the south, families waded through high waters in search of dry land.

“It was the worst night of my life,” he said. “My house is well built, but at one point it seemed as if the walls were shaking.”

More than 1,160 dead

The Pakistani government says severe flooding has killed more than 1,160 people, many of them children.

Jalalani remembers leaving his house to the sound of cries for help. He said he spent more than six hours rescuing people who were trapped in the water beyond their shoulders. He knew a man who had drowned.

“It was under a pile of rubble, and we couldn’t get it out,” Jalalani said. “It was very dark.”

Hundreds of people from his village live in a makeshift camp, while nearly 500,000 people are in camps for the displaced across the country.

Thousands of people who have fled their homes in Sindh are still struggling to find care. Many walked for days in search of shelter and pitched tents along the county’s main highway. Others have moved into abandoned buildings.

At a high school in Jamshoro, hundreds of people crowded classrooms and surrounding parks. Most of them had nothing but the clothes they fled with.

Ghulam Qadir, 17, fled his village two weeks ago. He and five other family members have been sleeping in a classroom for over a week.

“We left our house when the water almost reached my neck,” Qader said. His house began to collapse. Two rooms collapsed, and another began to collapse. “I was worried about my family, especially the children,” he said.

The government estimates that 33 million people have been affected by the floods, about 13 percent of the population.

World Health Organization He said Wednesday that 888 health facilities were damaged, even with Experts warned that the disaster could lead to an increase in disease and malnutrition. Stagnant water can act as breeding sites for mosquitoes that carry dengue fever and malaria.

Vector-borne disease researcher Irom Khan said cases of dengue have actually increased since the floods. Her lab at the Aga Khan University in Karachi reported more than 200 cases in August, compared with fewer than 30 in April. “The actual numbers are likely to be much higher,” Khan added.

The devastation has left parts of the country unable to function. Officials said Tuesday that a million homes were destroyed, as well as 2,100 miles of roads — about the distance between the capital and Salt Lake City. Bridges and dams were also destroyed. Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Monday that more than $10 billion is needed for reconstruction.

Thousands of acres of farmland are under water, and aid workers struggle to reach isolated communities.

“What awaits us is the lack of food that affects villages and cities alike,” Khan said.

Iqbal said at a press conference on Tuesday that the agricultural economy in Sindh had “completely collapsed”. “It has destroyed nearly half of our cotton crop,” he said. Rice was also affected, and 700,000 head of livestock were lost across the country. He called the floods a “climate disaster” and said Pakistan, which has one of the world’s lowest per capita carbon dioxide emissions, is suffering the most severe consequences of climate change.

“There are people in the developing world who pay the price,” Iqbal said.

Robbie Millen, Kasha Patel, and Lars Karcles from Washington. Susanna George reported from Kabul. Haq Nawaz Khan reported from Jamshoro, Pakistan. Shaiq Hussain reported from Islamabad. Jerry Shih reported from Delhi.