Pakistan Hit By Severe Floods, More Rain To Come

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يكشنبه 23 حوت 1394 ساعت 12:42 آخرین به روز رسانی در يكشنبه 23 حوت 1394 ساعت 12:52 نوشته شده توسط TOLOnews.com

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The storm system that hit the UAE and Northe Oman last week has now reached Pakistan and northe India where it has claimed the lives of at least 27 people.

Most people died when torrential rain accompanied by flashfloods hit several districts in the troubled southweste province of Balochistan, Pakistan disaster management officials said.

Weather experts have waed however, that showers will continue for the next two days and the rain storm system could move across north-easte parts of Afghanistan.

Local Pakistani authorities said at least 12 people have died and scores of others sustained injuries over the past two days in Chagai and Zhob districts of the province as the roofs of several homes caved in due to heavy rainfall and hailstorms.

Zahid Saleem, chief of the province's disaster management authority, said four children and a woman were also killed in Sheerani district on Friday after the roof of a house collapsed.

Saleem added that one person also died after being struck by lightning in Dalbandin district while three people were also killed in two districts of Mastung and Loralai.

Video footage showed flood waters inundating homes in Chagai, Chaman, Loralai, Mastung, Pishin, Quetta, Taank, Zhob and other districts, with residents taking refuge on rooftops.

Local residents in affected areas have grabbed whatever they could salvage, and waded through knee-deep water in search of higher ground.

Meteorologists say more rain is expected to fall across northe Pakistan and far northweste India through Monday, heightening the risk for flash flooding and mudslides.

The areas hardest hit will include Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan and Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in India.

Nearly 100mm of rain has already fallen around Islamabad on Friday and Saturday. In Khuzard in southe Pakistan, 73mm of rain has fallen since Tuesday.

According to a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, Eric Leister, the threat of rainfall will be minimal in southe Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday but that a second storm approaching from the west will continue the threat for downpours and flooding in northe Pakistan, and northweste India into Monday.

He states that a third storm will then target areas from northe Afghanistan into northe India with additional heavy rainfall during the middle and end of the coming week. Rainfall from this storm, in addition to the previous storms, could lead to widespread flooding throughout the region.

Pakistan is hit by severe weather pattes every year, which have affected millions of people, claimed hundreds of lives and wiped out millions of acres of farmland in recent years.

Monsoon, a rainy season that starts from mid-July and lasts till end of August, strikes Pakistan hard each year.

Torrential downpours and flooding killed 81 people and affected almost 300,000 Pakistanis across the country during the rainy season last summer.

In 2010, flooding also killed more than 1,200 people.

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