Pakistan’s BUNER As authorities defended their reaction to the flooding and stated they did not now require any foreign assistance, rescuers pulled dozens more dead from the debris of fallen homes in a northwest Pakistani area, raising the death toll to at least 274.
In neighboring Kashmir, flooding and heavy rains also claimed hundreds of lives.
54 bodies were discovered in Buner, a mountainous region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where heavy rains and cloudbursts caused significant flooding on Friday, according to Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency service.
Search efforts are concentrated on places where homes were demolished by torrents of water that poured down from the mountains, carrying rocks that slammed into houses like explosions, according to Suhail, who said that many are still missing.
Authorities are asking local administrations to stay vigilant as they warn of further floods and potential landslides between now and Tuesday. Since June 26, more than 600 people have been killed by the country’s higher-than-normal monsoon rainfall.
Seven people were killed on Sunday as rainfall caused more flash floods in two villages in the Kathua region of India-administered Kashmir, which is situated over Pakistan’s northeastern border. Chositi hamlet was struck by flash floods during an annual Hindu pilgrimage last week, and rescuers are still searching for dozens of missing individuals. There were about 150 injuries and at least 60 fatalities. More than three hundred others were saved.
Warnings of more intense rain to come
After devastating flooding and landslides were caused by excessive rain and cloudbursts, residents of Buner have accused officials of not warning them to leave. Mosque loudspeakers, a common practice in isolated locations, did not sound a warning.
Although there was an early warning system in place, the authorities said that the sudden downpour in Buner was so severe that the deluge hit before locals could be warned.
At a hurriedly called news conference in Islamabad, Lt. Gen. Inam Haider, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, stated that climate change was causing Pakistan to experience changing weather patterns. He stated that Pakistan has already received 50% more rainfall since the start of the monsoon season in June than it did during the same time last year.
He cautioned that since heavy rains are expected to persist this month, additional severe weather could follow.
Some nations have contacted Islamabad with aid offers, but Haider stated that Pakistan has enough resources and is not in need of outside aid at this time.
According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority’s director-general, Asfandyar Khan Khattak, there is “no forecasting system anywhere in the world” that can precisely anticipate when and where a cloudburst—a rapid, intense downpour—will occur.
According to Pir Baba village schoolteacher Muhammad Iqbal, the absence of an early warning system resulted in fatalities and compelled many people to leave their homes at the last minute.
His words, “Survivors escaped with nothing,” “If people had been informed earlier, lives could have been saved and residents could have moved to safer places.”
People still missing
According to Idrees Mahsud, a disaster management official, Pakistan’s early warning system alerted local authorities using meteorological data and satellite photos. Leaders in the community and the media disseminated these. He claimed that monsoon rains, which previously exclusively caused rivers to swell, now also cause floods in cities.
More than half of the district’s damaged roads had reopened by Sunday, enabling cars and large machinery to reach isolated settlements, according to Buner emergency services spokesperson Muhammad Sohail.
Workers were removing mud and rock mounds that the floodwaters had left behind. After families reported that some of their relatives were missing, they continued to use heavy machinery to clear the debris from collapsed homes.
In the village of Qadar Nagar, flooding flooded through a family’s home on the eve of a wedding, killing 24 people. This was one of the deadliest events. According to Umar Khan, the family’s head, he was out of the house during the floods, which is how he survived them. There are still four of his family missing.
Extreme weather
Pakistan is extremely susceptible to natural calamities brought on by climate change. A record-breaking monsoon in 2022 devastated millions of homes and claimed around 1,700 lives.
During the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, the nation also frequently experiences landslides and flash floods, especially in the untamed northwest where communities are frequently situated on steep hillsides and riverbanks.
According to experts, climate change is making extreme weather occurrences in South Asia more frequent and severe.
According to weather scientist Khalid Khan, Pakistan contributes less than 1% of global warming emissions, yet it experiences heat waves, torrential rains, floods caused by glacier outbursts, and now cloudbursts, highlighting how climate change is wreaking havoc on communities in a matter of hours.
Copyright 2025 NPR
