Record-breaking monsoon rains kill 6 in Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Massive monsoon rains flanked by gusty winds lashed large swaths across Pakistan on Wednesday, inundating streets, uprooting trees, and killing at least six persons, officials and local media reported.

Three deaths were reported from the country's second-largest city Lahore, which was hit by record-breaking rains on Tuesday.

A minor and two others were killed in different rain-related accidents in the city, Mohsin Naqvi, acting chief minister of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital, told reporters.

Another three casualties were reported from northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where torrential rains knocked off power, uprooted trees and utility poles, and triggered landslides in several districts.

Lahore received a record-breaking 291mm (11.46 inches) of rain in just 10 hours on Tuesday, submerging main thoroughfares, and streets, knocking off the power, and causing the city canal to overflow.

The latest spell has broken a 30-year record of single-day rains, Naqvi said in a Twitter post.

“All the cabinet members and administration were in the field to clear the rainwater. I am also monitoring the situation in the field and getting updates from all over Lahore continuously,” Naqvi said.

Footage played out by local broadcaster Geo News showed dozens of vehicles stuck on a main city road as bikers wade through the waist-deep rainwater.

Another spectacle showed civic agencies personnel trying to drain out rainwater through large pipes.

Rainwater also entered the city's two major state-run hospitals, forcing the administration to shift patients to the upper portions of the buildings.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast more rains in the next 24 hours in parts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, southwestern Balochistan province, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The ongoing monsoon spell, which began in June, has so far killed over 40 people across Pakistan, according to the local media.

Monsoon rains have long wreaked havoc on Pakistan in terms of both human casualties and the destruction of already fragile infrastructure. In recent years, climate change has further increased their frequency, ferocity, and unpredictability.

Late year, unprecedented rains and floods inundated a third of Pakistan, killing over 1,700 people, destroying hundreds of thousands of houses, schools, hospitals, roads, and bridges in Balochistan and Sindh, and causing whopping losses of over $30 billion.