The Provincial Disaster Management Authority put out a statement on Sunday: in as many as 24 hours, the province has been lashed by rain, wind and lightning, leaving seven people dead and 33 with injuries. This comes on the heels of a Saturday report from the PDMA that put the count at four dead and 16 injured in Bannu alone, a sign of how quickly the situation can spiral.
Fresh toll across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Bannu, Shangla and Mansehra have all seen fatalities, the PDMA says. Of the seven who have perished, they were four men, a woman and two children.
It was the storm’s force that did in most of the casualties and left others with their injuries, as walls and roofs caved in. The authority has it down to the strong winds and downpours that have run through the province.
Earlier blow to Bannu
After the storm on Friday, the PDMA gave an account of what happened in Bannu on Saturday. Two men and two children were among the dead; the list of the wounded includes four men, five women and seven children.
Those in need of medical attention were moved to hospitals in the vicinity. The storm made short work of some homes and commercial property, with shop roofs and other buildings in disarray where walls have come down in more than one spot.
Forecast signals continued hazard
Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, are in for more rain on Sunday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department. Elsewhere in the country, conditions will be hot and dry for the most part.
Given the state of the ground and the structures already in question, any new showers could do further harm, which is a risk for families in the more exposed districts.
Warnings were timely, action lagged
There is a gap in preparedness, a report has found, even when there is advance notice. The National Disaster Management Authority had put several areas on alert from April 12 to 17 after forecasting thunder and rain.
Vulnerable zones were called out in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the occupied territories of Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. You would have known to be on guard in Chitral, Swat, Lahore or Rawalpindi if you had read the briefs on potential trouble.
But the report makes clear that while the numbers are right and the systems are in place, the response is not. ‘Warnings are issued, impacts follow, and the underlying issues persist unchanged, unaddressed, and increasingly difficult to ignore,’ it cautions.
Relief and assessments on the ground
PDMA teams are still in the field in the hard-hit spots. They are in the process of a thorough survey to see what has been lost and what kind of support is in order.
In Bannu and elsewhere, you will find officials tending to the needs of families while they make sure of the extent of the damage to buildings.
Some of the main points from the latest word:
– Seven dead, 33 injured in the province, per the PDMA
– A prior update from Bannu put the numbers at four and 16
– More rain is in the offing for Sunday, says the met department
– NDMA had regions on watch between the 12th and 17th of April
What this means for residents now
For the time being, the worry is of seeing the same kind of damage all over again. With the strain already on some of the infrastructure, another round of rain could bring down more of a wall or a roof – the usual story behind the loss of life here.
The authorities want people to be on their toes as they finish up their work. It is a case of having the right information and then making sure it is acted on, something the report says is no small matter.
