New Orleans, Lahore and historic floods

Exactly 20 years ago, hurricane Katrina devastated multiple US states. It caused widespread devastation of both property and life. When the US media started showing floating dead bodies in New Orleans, the government had to send its armed forces to rescue those still stranded in flooded water. I was already going to New Orleans as there was a major public health conference planned there. Cities and areas around coast were evacuated and everything got cancelled.

But I was destined to go to New Orleans and within days I was flying to New Orleans as one of relief workers of US CDC. Our team's job was to evaluate the houses to see if they were safe for return. When I arrived in a completely vacant city, it was a surreal feeling as we did not need to stop at the traffic lights. It was like a Hollywood movie scene of a day after. Teams which went before me had to stay in tents as there were no hotels open. By the time our team arrived, there was one Holiday Inn open. It was just sort of open, as they only had one- or two-person staff. At check-in we got a clean bed sheet, pillow covers and a towel. Once in the room, I had to clean it and change the sheets myself with no replacements.

The only food available was in huge mess tents set up by the US army. Civilian relief workers were also allowed there, as there was no other food option available.

The following day, we toured the whole area including suburbs and adjoining counties. The US media was sharing videos of devastation nonstop. But once I reached ground zero where the levees were broken, miles across miles there was devastation. I saw small planes and helicopters dangling from treetops, and houses moved hundreds of meters away. It was estimated that it was a trillion-dollar economic loss with around 2,000 deaths. Population of New Orleans has not recovered since 2005.

The major reason for this devastation was that levees which were supposed to save the city broke down. The city was already lower than the sea level; and once these embankments broke, there was no time for the population in the affected area to escape as sea claimed its territory back in minutes. The major lesson was that reclaimed land must be safeguarded continuously and any lapses could be deadly. The same thing happened in Lahore but as we did not have embankments and water came a bit slower, it gave the population a short notice instead of a 10 feet surge suddenly coming to the area.

In Pakistan, we are witnessing one historic flood after another. In the 1988 floods in Ravi, I still remember, the flood water was passing through our streets in Model Town Lahore with live fish. But the open landscape of Lahore and the rest of Punjab meant that flood waters spread to a bigger area but caused less damage. In these decades there has been a mushroom growth of illegal and legal societies not built thinking long term. I remember in our childhood there was a long railway bridge outside Lahore and the myth was that the British made this long bridge looking at the flood records of the past 100 years. But these societies are reclaiming land with no protection and now talking about safeguards. Lesson from Katrina is that having substandard embankment is more dangerous than no protection.

I lived for 14 years in a central CDA sector. This house was 2 feet higher than the road but still failed to protect the house from flooding because outflow streams and nallahs have been compromised. It's so sad to still see illegal constructions in nallahs around Islamabad.

My paternal city Gujrat remained inundated for days and water was not leaving the houses. I have seen many Gujrat streets before floods with standing sewage permanently. Reason was simple as successive governments just made road on road but did not fix the sewerage problem and there was simply no drainage. Gujrat was already flooded with sewage, and flood waters just exacerbated the issue.

With climate change, floods are a new normal, and we need to build flood-resilient infrastructure. Future of Pakistan should not be drowned in sewerage or flood waters.