Wrath of nature: Thunderstorm claims three lives, leaves many injured

HYDERABAD:

The thunderstorm that swept through several districts in central and northern Sindh claimed three lives and left over 50 others injured in separate incidents.

The met office recorded 40 millimetre (mm) of rain in Dadu and 19 mm in Benazirabad, while Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Jamshoro and some other districts also experienced showers.

The speed of the north-western winds was recorded at 45 kilometres per hour in Benazirabad, where 30-year-old Azra and her eight-year-old son, Rehan, died after being crushed by a tree. The two were waiting for a bus on the Sanghar road when the incident occured. Another villager in Benazirabad, 35-year-old Shahida Raho, died in the Bachal Rahu village after a wall in her house caved in on her.

Around 300 villages in the Kaccho [mountainous] areas of the Dadu district have reportedly been cut off temporarily from the district, being engulfed in flash flood from the Khirthar Mountains. Dozens of katcha houses have also reportedly collapsed.

Most of the injuries have been reported from Dadu and Benazirabad, due to the collapse of katcha houses, road accidents and falling trees and signboards.

Temperature dropped to 36 degree celsius in the Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas divisions, after being as high as 44 degrees celsius last week.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2014.