Crores in need of aid as ‘unprecedented’ floods destroy a million homes in Pakistan

News Network

August 29, 2022

Crores of Pakistanis affected by the worst flooding in a decade are in desperate need of aid as authorities say they have been “overwhelmed” by the scale of the disaster, with the country’s climate minister calling it a “serious climate catastrophe”.

The unprecedented monsoon season has affected all four provinces of the country. Nearly a million homes have been destroyed or badly damaged, numerous roads rendered impassable and electricity outages have been widespread, affecting at least 33 million people.

Rasheedan Sodhar had to walk more than 20km (12 miles) to safety after her village in southern Sindh province was submerged by water.

“We are a family of 20, and we were told yesterday [Sunday] to immediately leave the village. We have nothing left. We are alive, but we are not able to live any more,” the 25-year-old teacher said, adding that she could not save her 30 livestock while her house was destroyed by the deluge.

Sodhar said her entire family, with pregnant women and infants, have no shelter and are living in the open in scorching weather in the nearby town of Mehar. “We barely get one meal a day. Our children are crying all day. What can you tell them to stop crying when there is no home for them,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from flooded areas.

Some 180,000 people have been evacuated from Charsadda and 150,000 from Nowshera district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Kamran Bangash, a spokesperson for the provincial government, said.

Many have been forced to take shelter on roadsides.

Khaista Rehman, 55, took shelter with his wife and three children on the side of the Islamabad-Peshawar highway after his home in Charsadda was submerged overnight.

“Thank God, we are safe now on this road quite high from the flooded area,” he told The Associated Press news agency.

“Our crops are gone and our home is destroyed but I am grateful to Allah that we are alive and I will restart life with my sons.”

Aid flights begin arriving

Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan have reached 1,061 since mid-June, officials said on Sunday, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday announced a $45m relief fund for the flood-hit Balochistan province.

“I saw floodwater everywhere, wherever I went in recent days and even today,” Sharif said on Monday in Charsadda, one of the devastated towns. He said the planes carrying aid from some countries have reached Pakistan as he expected more in the coming days.

Sharif said the government would provide housing to all those who lost their homes.

The government has declared a national emergency and appealed for international help. On Sunday, the first aid flights arrived from Turkey and the UAE, carrying tents, food and other daily necessities. Qatar Red Crescent has also pledged emergency aid.

Trucks carrying tents, food, and water arranged by Pakistan were also being dispatched to various parts of the country by the National Disaster Management Authority for tens of thousands of flood victims.

The United Nations will launch an international appeal for Pakistani flood victims on Tuesday in Islamabad, the national capital.

Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis.

“What we see now is an ocean of water submerging entire districts,” Climate Minister Sherry Rehman told the AFP news agency on Monday.

“This is very far from a normal monsoon – it is climate dystopia at our doorstep.”

In a video posted on Twitter on Sunday Rehman said Pakistan is experiencing a “serious climate catastrophe, one of the hardest in the decade”.

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Powerful solar storm hits earth; will it disrupt communication, power grids?

News Network

May 11,2024

Washington, May 11: The most powerful solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular celestial light shows from Tasmania to Britain -- and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids as it persists into the weekend.

The first of several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) -- expulsions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun -- came just after 1600 GMT, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center.

It was later upgraded to an "extreme" geomagnetic storm -- the first since the "Halloween Storms" of October 2003 caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa. More CMEs are expected to pummel the planet in the coming days.

Social media lit up with people posting pictures of auroras from northern Europe and Australasia.

"We've just woken the kids to go watch the Northern Lights in the back garden! Clearly visible with the naked eye," Iain Mansfield in Hertford, England, told AFP.

That sense of wonder was shared in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

"Absolutely biblical skies in Tasmania at 4 am this morning. I'm leaving today and knew I could not pass up this opportunity," photographer Sean O' Riordan posted on social media platform X alongside a photo.

Authorities notified satellite operators, airlines, and the power grid to take precautionary steps for potential disruptions caused by changes to Earth's magnetic field.

Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellite internet operator has some 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, described the solar storm as the "biggest in a long time."

"Starlink satellites are under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far," Musk posted on his X platform.

Unlike solar flares, which travel at the speed of light and reach Earth in around eight minutes, CMEs travel at a more sedate pace, with officials putting the current average at 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second.

The CMEs emanated from a massive sunspot cluster that is 17 times wider than our planet. The Sun is approaching the peak of an 11-year cycle that brings heightened activity.

'Go outside tonight and look'

Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told AFP that how far the effects would be felt over the planet's northern and southern latitudes would depend on the storm's final strength.

"Go outside tonight and look would be my advice because if you see the aurora, it's quite a spectacular thing," he said. People with eclipse glasses can also look for the sunspot cluster during the day.

In the United States, this could include places such as Northern California and Alabama, officials said.

NOAA's Brent Gordon encouraged the public to try to capture the night sky with phone cameras even if they couldn't see auroras with their naked eyes.

"Just go out your back door and take a picture with the newer cell phones and you'd be amazed at what you see in that picture versus what you see with your eyes."

Spacecraft and pigeons

Fluctuating magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic storms induce currents in long wires, including power lines, which can potentially lead to blackouts. Long pipelines can also become electrified, leading to engineering problems.

Spacecraft are also at risk from high doses of radiation, although the atmosphere prevents this from reaching Earth.

NASA has a dedicated team looking into astronaut safety and can ask astronauts on the International Space Station to move to places within the outpost that are better shielded.

Following one particularly strong flare peak, the US Space Weather Prediction Center said users of high-frequency radio signals "may experience temporary degradation or complete loss of signal on much of the sunlit side of Earth."

Even pigeons and other species that have internal biological compasses could also be affected. Pigeon handlers have noted a reduction in birds coming home during geomagnetic storms, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Officials said people should have the normal backup plans in place for power outages, such as having flashlights, batteries, and radios at hand.

The most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history, known as the Carrington Event after British astronomer Richard Carrington, occurred in September 1859.

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