Deaths 52 as rain breaks 30-year record in Karachi

KARACHI - Torrential monsoon rain in the provincial capital that had started on Friday has so far claimed at least 52 lives, as heavy downpour flooded low-lying parts of the City damaging hundreds of homes and civic infrastructure.
The rainstorm has broken the 30-year record with some areas receiving more than 215 mm of rain. KESC, responsible for supplying electricity to the City and the adjoining region, has remained unable to restoring power supply with many grid stations damaged and transmission lines downed. It is worth mentioning that all most the entire population was without electricity on Sunday night. But the company is saying that it is making all out efforts to ensure power supply to the City.
Talking to The Nation City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said authorities were trying their best to cope up with the situation and claimed that most localities in the City had been cleaned.
He said arrangements had been made to counter expected happenings after the Met Office forecasted heavy showers. But the rain was heaviest in the last 30 years, straining the available infrastructure and resources, he added.
Efforts were underway to restore traffic and electricity along with pumping the floodwater out of streets and homes, he said.
When contacted, DCO Karachi Javaid M Hanif feared that the death toll in rain related incidents might rise further, as the officials had evacuated the people from the badly affected neighbourhoods.
The district government is claiming that it has prepared a new plan keeping in view heavy rains and issued orders deploying workers on relief activities but no relief work is visible till filing of this report.
Meanwhile, Health Minster Dr Saghir Ahmed has confirmed only 25 deaths, besides 57 injured persons. He said 4 dead bodies were brought to the Qatar Hospital from Orangi Town and its adjacent areas while 9 bodies had been rushed to Civil Hospital Karachi, one to JPMC and 4 bodies were shifted to the Murshad Hospital from Baldia Town.
According to details, in a tragic incident at Ranchor Line, 4 family members were killed when the roof of an adjacent house caved into the house of Badar (45) killing him along with his wife Rani (38) and their children including Athar (5) and Zardaza (7). Similarly, Bushra (27) and her three-year-old son Nasir died as the roof of their house collapsed in Manghopir. In another major incident in Gadap Town, some 11 residents of Lasi Goth drowned in gushing water at Lyari river-bed. Five of them including Nadeem Umar 27, Nadia 17, Rozina 20, Umer Nabi 50 and Javed 28 died while rest of them were rescued.
An unknown man also lost his life due to overflowing Lyari River within Sharifabad Police Station precincts.
Three children also drowned to death in Mujahid Colony, Nazimabad. Their names are Yashfa 8, Javed 9 and ten-year-old Khurram.
The Site police found the body of an eight-year-old girl from a nullah while two real brothers, Sajid Amin 29 and Zubair Amin 25, lost their lives in a similar incident in Railway Colony. Two friends namely Majid 29 and Abid 32 were drowned to death in Qayyumabad due to flooding Malir River.
In other sad incidents, 10-year-old Ghaffar was electrocuted in PIB Colony, while an unknown man in Manzoor Colony and 35-year-old Saifullah were electrocuted in Labour Square in Site Police precincts.
Gul Hassan (24) died in Surjani Town when the roof of his house caved in.
Two unknown bodies were also found from Maripur and Garden Police Stations limits.
Two people, including Noor Muhammad 28 and Maqbool 20, drowned to death in Khuda-ki-Basti. 26-year-old Adnan lost his life due to electrocution in Nasir Colony while 20-year-old Sidra died in a roof collapse in Nusrat Bhutto Colony.
Wasif Khan (5) and 33-year-old Zulfiqar were electrocuted in Madina Colony, Orangi Town, and Saleem Centre respectively.
Aziz Ali in Shah Faisal and Wajid in Korangi were also electrocuted while the body of a 5-year-old unknown boy was found from a nullah in Sector 5-E New Karachi.
Unknown bodies of 35-year-old woman near Orangi Town Post Office and 40-year-old man in Bengali Para were also found who are also the victims of electrocution.
An unknown passer-by died when a wall fell on him at MA Jinnah Road and a drowned body of an unknown man was found under the Liaquatabad Bridge.
In Baldia Town, Rabia Khatoon (28) along with her daughter Ayesha (4) and son Umer (7) died in roof collapse. A mother and her daughter, Shakeela (36) and Zulekha (5), were also killed in a similar incident in the area.
Ten-month-old Ali was also killed inside his house as one of the walls fell on him while he was asleep.
Another roof collapse buried 45-year-old Syed Muhammad Jan alive at a poultry farm in Orangi Town. 50-year-old Hafeezan also became victim as tin-roof of her house caved. In Gulshan-e-Zia, 26-year-old Khaliquz Zaman too died because of a roof collapse.
In Ibrahim Hyderis Ali Abbas Shah Goth, Noor Muhammad (45) was electrocuted when a live wire in front of his house snapped and fell directly on him, as he was stepping out to enjoy the rain. The deceased was a fisherman and was the father of seven children.
In Maripurs Rehman Goth, a seven-year-old unknown boy drowned while playing in a storm-water drain close to his house.
In Ittehad Town, two persons, 50-year-old Tahir Shah and 26-year-old Bakhtiar, died when the roof of their seminary caved in.
Elsewhere, around 100 people sustained critical and minor injuries in various incidents of roof or wall collapse. They were being treated in various hospitals of the City. The incidents were reported from Surjani Town, Orangi Town, Soldier Bazaar, Ibrahim Hyderi, Machar Colony, Musharraf Colony and Landhi.
On the other hand, the City of around 16 million people continued to witness power breakdown, which resulted in riots as people ransacked the KESC offices and erected the barricades to block roads in Orangi Town, Baldia, Maripur, Jamshed Road, Landhi, New Karachi and various other localities.
Interestingly, KESC spokesman has claimed that more than 500 out of 1100 power feeders are in order again, while power supply would again be normal in phases and restoration work is underway for this purpose.