PAKSITAN's FLOOD IS WORSE THAN HAITI's TSUNAMI

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan exceeds 13 million — more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said yesterday.
The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1,600 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago.

• Thousands of people have fled a major city in central Pakistan as authorities warned that swollen rivers could soon submerge the area, making them victims of the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.
• The UN, relying on Pakistani figures, said the disaster has affected almost 14 million people, eclipsing the scale of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, as the deadly floodwaters sweep south and rescuers battle to bring aid to survivors.
• Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said yesterday that the floods were a bigger crisis than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people and the army's operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley last spring that drove more than two million people from their homes.
• "The magnitude of the tragedy is so immense that it is hard to assess," said Gilani during a visit to the central Pakistani city of Multan.
• Many of the people affected by the floods, which were caused by extremely heavy monsoon rains, were located in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rescue workers have been unable to reach up to 600,000 people marooned in the province's Swat Valley, where many residents were still trying to recover from last year's fight with the Taliban, said Giuliano.
Bad weather has prevented helicopters from flying to the area, which is inaccessible by ground, he said.

Source: GulfNews