More than 1,100 people, including 380 children, have been killed in unprecedented flooding in Pakistan.
According to Reuters, nearly a third of Pakistan is underwater, destroying the homes, businesses, infrastructure, crops and property of 33 million people (15 percent of Pakistan's population). Early estimates say the country is facing at least $10 billion in damage.
The flooding was brought on by abnormally heavy rains during monsoon season.
Reuter reports that Pakistan has experienced nearly 190 percent more rain than "the 30-year average in the quarter through August this year." The hardest hit region, Sindh province, received 466 percent more rain than the 30-year average.
"Pakistan is awash in suffering," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message as the United Nations launched an appeal for $160 million to aid Pakistan.
"The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids – the relentless impact of epochal levels of rain and flooding."
The funds, Guterres said, would provide 5.2 million Pakistanis with food, water, health support, sanitation and emergency education.
According to a state-run disaster relief agency, on Tuesday, almost 300 stranded people were airlifted in northern Pakistan. An additional 50,000 people were moved to government relief shelters in the northwest.
A 63-year-old Pakistani villager named Hussain Sadiq – who is currently residing in a relief shelter with his family – described life in Pakistan as "very painful" at the moment, noting that his family lost everything.
Officials do not foresee the water receding anytime soon, and Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa asserted that "rehabilitation will take a long, long time."
The United States has pledged to send $30 million to Pakistan to aid flood response and recovery. The funds are coming from USAID. The U.S. embassy in Islamabad said in a statement that the U.S. was "deeply saddened by the devastating loss of life, livelihoods, and homes throughout Pakistan."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/KSwinicki, this is a stock image.
Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.
