Peshawar [Pakistan], August 16 : Devastating floods that struck several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Friday badly damaged infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, and electricity installations, while claiming over 200 lives, Dawn reported.
With damage assessment ongoing, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said seven houses were destroyed and 38 damaged, mostly in Swat district. Three schools were destroyed and another three damaged, the PDMA added. It warned that rainfall would continue until August 21 in different parts of the province, Dawn reported.
Deaths and infrastructural damage were recorded in Swat, Buner, Shangla, Bajaur, Lower Dir, Battagram, and Mansehra districts. Meanwhile, the KP government declared a one-day mourning on Saturday to honour the five crew members of a Mi-17 helicopter who embraced martyrdom when the aircraft crashed during a rescue operation.
According to a notification issued by the administration department, the national flag will be flown at half-mast across the province as a mark of respect, Dawn added.
Rescue 1122 teams shifted 2,071 stranded people, including 300 schoolchildren, to safety in Buner district following heavy rainfall and flash floods. Deputy Commissioner Kashif Qayyum said an emergency had been declared across the district as relief efforts continued in the calamity-hit areas.
"Helicopters are being used to carry out rescue operations in remote and inaccessible regions," he said. Qayyum added that floodwaters had submerged Pir Baba Bazaar and its neighbourhood, while a mosque in Gokand was destroyed and a large number of animals perished. Several roads were also blocked.
Officials said the number of people missing during the flooding would be known only after the waters receded, Dawn reported.
In Mansehra, police rescued seven tourists stranded in the upper parts of Kaghan Valley. They had visited Simicsar Lake but were trapped by rain and landslides. Rains lashed the district throughout the day, dangerously swelling the Indus, Siren, and Kunhar rivers along with their tributaries. The district administration banned tourist visits to the Siren Valley.
Landslides and uprooted trees blocked the Nawazabad and Batrasi roads, which police later cleared for traffic. Passengers and tourists travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan were stranded in Upper Kohistan after local authorities restricted movement on the Karakoram Highway in the Uchar Nullah area due to high water levels in the Indus River, Dawn reported.
Abbottabad city was severely affected, with almost all main roads inundated, creating flood-like conditions. Major arteries, including PMA Kakul Road, Mirpur Mandian Road, Supply Road, Karakoram Highway, Sethi Masjid Road, Iqbal Road, Banda Dalazak, Banda Khair Ali Khan Road, Trakana, and the Link Road near Ciena Laboratory, were submerged.
Most drainage systems were clogged, causing rainwater to overflow onto streets and enter houses, damaging goods. Traffic was paralysed for hours, especially on the KKH in front of Ayub Teaching Hospital, where swift floodwaters swept away several vehicles. Some vehicles broke down due to accumulated mud and debris.
Over 25 tourists and their vehicles were stranded in Shahi area due to high water flow on the other side of Kambat and Shahi areas of Lower Dir. They were evacuated by personnel of Frontier Corps 181 Wing, Rescue 1122, and the district administration, Dawn reported.
Several link roads in Lower Dir remained blocked due to landslides triggered by heavy rain, while candidates for teaching posts in Talash and other areas struggled to reach examination centres. Traffic was suspended near Gulabad Bazaar at Safruno after floodwaters damaged the road.
Heavy rainfall and flash floods severely damaged power infrastructure in Swat, with floodwaters entering the 132kv grid station, causing the tripping of 41 feeders and the complete suspension of electricity transmission across the region. The feeder supplying power to Malam Jabba was also submerged, causing extensive damage. Flash floods also washed away several electricity poles and transformers.
On the instructions of Federal Power Minister Awais Ahmad Laghari, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company began efforts to restore power supply. It deployed additional workforce to expedite rehabilitation and dispatched transformers, poles, cables, and heavy machinery to support field operations, Dawn reported.