At least six members of a family were feared after a mass landslide buried his home in the Muzaffrabad district in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday, while torrential rains gained the lives of two more women in the districts of Bagh and Sudhnoti, the authorities said.
The monsoon rains, which fall throughout the region from June to September of each year, continue to open many parts of the country. From the end of June, monsoon rains have wreaked havoc throughout the country in the last month by triggering mortal floods, landslides and displacements, particularly in vulnerable areas, poorly drained or densely populated.
At least 313 people, including 142 children, have died and another 740 have been injured in sudden floods and torrential rains that have mistreated several parts of Pakistan since the end of June, according to updated daily data of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The incident occurred in Nariyah Behak, part of the village of Sarli Sacha northwest of Muzampharabad, where a bubble of clouds sent a wall of water that increased to Jhugiyan Nullah, crashing into houses perched on the pastures of the highlands where they live in summer in summer.
“Two houses were dragged by the flood,” he told Saeed Qureshi, senior director of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA). Dawn.com.
“Six family members are missing: Muhammad Naveed, his wife Suso Bibi and his four children, all under 10 years, and there are no possibilities of their survival,” he added.
The downpour also caused sudden floods and landslides in much of AJK, washing small bridges, cutting the roads and damaging dozens of houses.
In a nearby house, Jamdali, 60, escaped by little, but suffered critical injuries.
Raja Manzoor Hussain, a local councilor in Jhing Village, said the site was on difficult field.
“The incident occurred around 2 pm, but we only received the news after 3:30 pm,” he said. “There is no telecommunications service there, and the main track was cut, so the messenger had to take an additional diversion of two kilometers on foot.
“The losses will be much higher than we know at this time, only tomorrow will reveal the true scale,” he said Dawn.com by phone.
In the same area, a furious flood in Machhiara Nullah destroyed an important bridge in Batdara, cutting the only earth connection for four villages and putting everyday life.
In the district of Sudhnoti, Ashfaq mission, 26, was dragged by a stream and killed, while his younger sister was injured.
“Local residents managed to recover the body shortly after,” said the attached commissioner Mumtaz Kazmi Dawn.comadding that 34 houses in their district had been partially or completely damaged.
In the Bagh district, Akhtar Begm, 57, was killed when his house collapsed in Jia Na Bun Village. Heavy rains also destroyed part of a road and a service station.
A vehicle that transported four tourists from Janwala was caught in flood waters, but safely rescued, according to the attached commissioner Sadaqat Adalat.
Meanwhile, Neelum’s northeast valley faced large interruptions.
Deputy Disaster Management Official of the Akhtar Ayoub Inform Dawn.com That dozens of tourists vary throughout Ratti Gali Nullah had been safely transported to Dawarian Kallas.
“While a stranded vehicle was recovered from the floods, Ratti Galli Nullah was swept by a motorcycle,” he said.
The Administration had advised more than 600 tourists to camp at the base of the lake that remained in place, since the link path had been damaged by the rains and floods ongoing.
AJK Information Minister Pir Mazhar Saeed, who was also present on the site, issued a video message that said that all camps owners had agreed not to charge tourists for meals and accommodation that night.
“This is the beauty of the Neelum Valley: it is what attracts tourists here,” he said, adding that all visitors would be safely evacuated on Friday when the climatic conditions were expected to improve.
Ayoub said that two connection bridges on Lawat Nullah in the upper belt of the Valley had also been dragged.
“In Kundal Shahi, fans Jagran Nullah started a known bridge near a popular waterfall, the same place where a collapsed bridge collapsed in 2018, killing several tourists,” he said.
More upstream, the floods also swept another bridge, as well as a store, four containers and some equipment related to the Jagran-II hydroelectric project.
A picturesque restaurant next to the river and at least three houses in the area were dragged, with even more losses.
In Jhelum Valley, a cloud on Palhot along the Bani Hafiz road unleashed a sudden flood that damaged part of the road and left dozens of stranded vehicles. In the village of Nardajiyan, a furious torrent swept six stores, he said.
In Muzaffrabad, the SDMA reported in a statement that the Neelum River was rapidly increasing, with the Nauseri dam that reached 1,000 cubic meters per second, an unusually high volume, and climbing.
The authorities issued a flood warning and a plan to relocate vulnerable families in the river to Pilot Jinnaah high school in Lower Plate and Ali Akbar Awan High School in Alto Chhattar.
The Muzampharabad -Mansehra road remained blocked in Lohar Gali due to landslide, while other connection roads were open but full of rubble.
The authorities have urged residents and travelers to exercise extreme caution until conditions improve.
The Department of Meteorological of Pakistan (PMD) predicted on Tuesday generalized rain, wind and thundershowers in most of the country in the next few days, and it is expected that the monzonic activity will intensify from August 17.
In its last weather warning, the MT Office said that the monzónic currents of the Arabic sea continually penetrated the upper parts of Pakistan, while the wet currents of the Bengal Bay probably strengthened half of the week.
Under these conditions, Rain/Thundershower wind was expected with heavy falls scattered in Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Upper Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan from August 14 to 17.
Last month, a sudden flood triggered by Cloudburst caused generalized damage to AJK, damaging around two dozen houses and six stores and leaving a trace of destruction in its path.
