Scores homeless as storm pounds Balochistan

QUETTA:

Snowfall and rain triggered by intermittent storms swept through large swathes of territory in Balochistan on Saturday, leaving one person dead, 10 other injured and rendering at least 50 families homeless.

Electricity, being the first casualty of rain, was missing along with breakdown of sewerage system and disruption in traffic on roads and highways on day two of the wet spell.

“A man was killed and ten wounded when  a passenger van was washed away by flash-floods in Mach Town of Bolan district,” Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters in Quetta. “More than 50 families were rendered homeless when torrents washed away their mud houses,” he said.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and Pakistan Army are on high alert to deal with any situation developed after the heavy rains in plains and snowfall on mountains, the minister said. Bugti said that urgent relief items including tents and food have been dispatched to the affected areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2015.