A child died while six adults sustained injuries in accidents of roof and wall collapses as torrential rains wreaked havoc in Vehari city and its surrounding areas.
Rescue teams removed the injured and the dead from under the debris and shifted them to the hospital.
Wapda installations were also damaged.
Torrential rain and strong winds uprooted trees.
Deputy Commissioner Syed Asif Hussain Shah had issued orders to all the departments to be on alert before the rain. However, despite the passage of two days, the streets and roads of the city and suburbs were presenting the scene of canals.
A giant billboard installed at the V Chowk fell on the mainline of Wapda, suspending power supply to the city.
Power supply was being restored gradually.
The municipal committee and the fire brigade staff had been accused of flouting the DC's order. No substantial steps had been taken to restore municipal services.
Most of the roads and streets had turned into ponds. Sewage had also accumulated on the streets, which would result in outbreak of various diseases.
The roof of the house of Mohammad Waqas collapsed, killing his two-year-old daughter and injuring his wife seriously.
The villagers and Rescue 1122 with their help removed the debris and pulled out the mother and daughter from under the debris and shifted the injured woman and Waqas to the DHQ Hospital.
The incidents of roof collapse also occurred in Chak No. 7/WB, Wahab Chowk, 101/WB Chakdala, 187/EB Gago Mandi and Lakar Mandi Vehari.
Rescue 1122 personnel responded immediately and shifted the injured to the nearby hospitals.
In July last year, at least six people had died and eight others were injured in two incidents of roof collapse and two road traffic crashes amid heavy rain that lashed the provincial capital.
Two men sitting on a charpoy at a rickshaw workshop at Daroghawala Chowk to shelter themselves from rain died and two others were injured when the mud roof collapsed.
One of the victims had stopped at the place minutes before the incident. People present nearby rushed to help them and called rescue teams. They removed the debris and evacuated the victims.
One of the men had died on the spot, while another was shifted to hospital but he succumbed to injuries. The deceased were identified as Azeem Hafeez, 44, from Mughalpura and Fiaz Sattar, 45, from Fatehgarh.
In the other incident, the roof of a house in a dilapidated condition collapsed in Salamatpura, leaving one person dead and another injured.
Rescue teams had rushed to the spot, removed the debris and evacuated a two-year-old boy with fractured leg and the body of 24-year-old Farhan Yaqoob.
The injured child, Ahmad Ali, son of Azeem, was taken to the Services Hospital.
Slippery roads had also caused several accidents during the rain.
In an incident at Kahna Nau, Munir Ahmad, 45, was hit by a car while trying to cross a road. He was severely injured.
The driver lost control over the car, which rammed into a passenger van. Furqan Bashir, 45, of Lalliyani, who was sitting on rooftop of the van, fell down due to the traffic crash and died.
The car driver, Ahmad Hassan, and a woman traveling with him had also suffered injuries.
In the other accident near Chung, a vehicle overturned after the driver lost control of it. As a result, Asiya Bibi died and three people were injured.
The rain had hampered traffic flow in the city as many intersections and low-lying areas had been inundated.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2023.
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