U.S. doubles helicopters for Pakistan flood relief ("astronomical natural disaster") - Pic Heavy

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

By Sue Pleming


US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah holds a briefing
for foreign media on US flood relief efforts in Pakistan on August 27, 2010 at the
Washington Foreign Press Center in Washington. AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it would double the number of U.S. helicopters to help with relief efforts in Pakistan after epic floods that have overwhelmed the fragile government there.

An additional 18 helicopters would arrive in mid-September as part of an expanded U.S. contribution to deal with the floods, the Pentagon said. These would be in addition to 15 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft already there.

Rajiv Shah, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said it was clear after he personally surveyed flood damage this week that significant resources would be needed when the waters receded. "The scale and scope of this natural disaster is astronomical," he told a news conference in Washington on his return from Pakistan.

The floods have affected more than 20 million people and Shah said about 23 percent of the country's cropland -- or 4.3 million acres -- was under water. More than 9 million people are in need of immediate support because of the raging waters, which have spread out over a landmass bigger than Italy, he said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN27102880

---

Pakistan flood crisis extreme, U.N. says - "An already colossal disaster is getting worse"

By Alex Rodriguez - Published: Friday, Aug. 27, 2010 11:16 p.m. MDT

SUKKUR, Pakistan — Floodwaters that have reached the Indus River delta displaced at least 1 million southern Pakistan residents in recent days, U.N. officials said Friday,a significant escalation of what is already the country's worst natural disaster in its history.

"An already colossal disaster is getting worse, and requiring an even more colossal response," said U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano. "The magnitude of this crisis is reaching levels that are even beyond our initial fears."

Officials with the world body say the speed with which the crisis is spreading is outpacing the international community's efforts to reach legions of flood victims who lack access to food, clean drinking water, shelter and health care. U.N. workers are providing drinking water to 2.5 million people but have yet to reach the estimated 3.5 million others still in need.

Relief workers are especially concerned about the risk to children, many of whom were already in poor health before the floods. U.N. officials estimate that at least 70,000 children under the age of 5 and living in flood-affected areas suffered from acute malnutrition before the crisis. Up to 20 percent of children in flooded regions are suffering from diarrhea-related disorders and at high risk of dehydration and malnutrition.

Full article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700060926/Pakistan-flood-crisis-extreme-UN-says.html



Pakistani villagers affected by the floods camp on higher ground in Baluchistan
on August 27, 2010.


An aerial view of a flooded village in Baluchistan province is pictured on August 27, 2010.


Pakistani villagers affected by the floods gesture to a helicopter (unseen) in Baluchistan
on August 27, 2010



Boxes containing biscuits and other food are dropped from an Afghani helicopter,
in support of the Pakistani army relief operation, to a flooded town in
Baluchistan province on August 27, 2010


GHARI KHAIRO, PAKISTAN - AUGUST 27: Houses and a mosque are surrounded by flood
waters on August 27, 2010 near Garhi Khairo in Sindh province, Pakistan


Crew members in an Afghani helicopter, supporting the Pakistani army relief operation,
deliver food to people in Baluchistan province on August 27, 2010.


SUKKUR, PAKISTAN - AUGUST 27: A young boy, whose family was displaced from their
home by flooding, holds an empty container as he and others line up for food rations
at a flood relief camp run by the Pakistan Army on August 27, 2010 near Sukkur in
Sindh province, Pakistan.


GHARI KHAIRO, PAKISTAN - AUGUST 27: A young girl, displaced by floods and stranded
on land only accessible by air, cries as she waves flies away from her face on August
27, 2010 in Garhi Khairo near Jacobabad in Sindh province, Pakistan.


A Pakistani flood survivor girl looks to her mother outside her tent at a camp in Sukkur,
in southern Pakistan on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010.

More news, photos and videos going back to since this began: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Turborama

[necso]

1. Currently,

we have strategic interests in the area.

Humanitarian aid (done effectively, etc) can help further these interests, or at least help keep adversaries from having a fertile, open field.

[sabrina 1]

2. Humanitarian aid will accomplish far more than bombs

to further our interests. The assistance provided by the U.S. military has already begun to change minds in Pakistan. And the more people who do not hate us, the harder it will be for extremists to gain power.

Too bad we did not go to Afghanistan offering help to rebuild a country we helped to destroy during the Cold War. So many lives would have been spared on all sides and the goodwill generated would have weakened the extremist elements. The invasions, the killing of so many people only radicalized more people.

I remember a documentary I saw a while ago on Iraq. It featured a family of moderate Muslims who had admired the U.S. until the horrors of the war unfolded. The parents explained that these horrors had caused one of their sons to become very angry and they were worried at what might happen. They said they knew many people who before had hated the terrorists, but now began to believe that they were right after all.

[necso]

3. In many cases,

I believe that we're better off dealing with others in terms of common interests and common humanity, as opposed to warring.

"The truly strong man (person) is slow to draw his sword.": ie, to start a fight; to engage in unnecessary fighting; to yield to "peer" pressure.

[Fearless]

4. K&R!

[sabrina 1]

7. Yes, we have a very warped idea of what strength is in this

country. I can't say I think it's very brave or honorable to push a button somewhere in the U.S. and kill people thousands of miles away. Not much to respect about that imon.

[Posteritatis]

15. And it'll cause fewer people to die, but I guess that's not as important, right? (nt)

[greenman3610]

5. our media has moved on

to commemorating Katrina

[sabrina 1]

17. A tragedy made possible by criminal negligence on the part of

our government. The media did come through on that story though, for once.

Btw, congrats on the mention of your work in the linked article in the OP.

[Drops_not_Dope]

6. kicking

and recommended.

[OhioChick]

8. Good to hear....

That last picture of the little girl breaks my heart. :(

[Turborama]

10. A couple more images I just saw on a CNN report.... (warning, upsetting)

From this recent report (video): http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/08/27/sidner.pakistan.floods.friday.cnn

[JDPriestly]

9. It's heartbreaking. It will pass. The waters will subside.

It's a matter of keeping as many people safe and comfortable as possible until the time to rebuild comes.

Reminds me somehow of Katrina. It's very, very sad.

[Turborama]

11. More deaths feared in Pakistan as flood waters recede

More deaths feared in Pakistan as flood waters recede
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 28, 2010 -- Updated 1506 GMT (2306 HKT)


Pakistani villagers made homeless by the floods line up for food August 27 at a relief camp line
in Sukkar

(CNN) -- The death toll from Pakistan's massive flooding has climbed to 1,639, but the number could rise substantially as flood waters recede and more bodies surface, government officials say.

More than 17 million Pakistanis -- about the population of the Netherlands -- have been affected by the monsoon floods that began a month ago. In the past few days, at least 1 million people have been displaced in Pakistan's Sindh province, the United Nations said. Authorities issued evacuation orders after a levee burst.

Homeless families stomped through filthy waters as clean water remains a scarce commodity. Hundreds of thousands of victims have acquired transmittable ailments such as acute watery diarrhea, scabies and respiratory infections.

=snip=

"The flooding has surrounded millions of children with contaminated water," said Karen Allen, deputy representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan. "Most have nothing else to drink. We fear the deadly synergy of waterborne diseases, including diarrhea, dehydration and malnutrition." Acute malnutrition was high in much of Pakistan even before the floods. For instance, 27 percent of children under 5 in Baluchistan province were malnourished, as were 17 percent of children in Punjab, according to the U.N.

More harrowing details, videos and photos: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/28/pakistan.floods/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ&wom=false

A girl affected by the flood, sits on a street outside her home in Margala,
Pakistan's Swat Valley August 28, 2010.




Picture from this BBC slide show...

Your pictures: Floods in Shangla district, Pakistan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11089411

-

[another saigon]

12. Pakistan levee breach threatens historic city

:(

Last Updated: Saturday, August 28, 2010 | 11:13 AM ET




Flood survivors have a meal at a roadside in Thatta near Hyderabad, Pakistan, on Saturday. Flood survivors have a meal at a roadside in Thatta near Hyderabad, Pakistan, on Saturday. (Shakil Adil/Associated Press)



Floodwaters broke through the levees protecting a southern Pakistani city again on Saturday, prompting more than 175,000 people to leave their homes in search of higher ground.

The evacuation of roughly 70 per cent of Thatta's population began overnight after the latest levee breach, caused by the Indus river overflowing its banks in Sindh province.

The river is raging at 40 times its normal volume.

Many evacuees decided to camp out along the main road from Thatta while others kept moving in buses, cars, trucks and ox-drawn carts.
Taking shelter in graveyard

Thousands have headed for the high ground of an ancient graveyard for Muslim saints. The Makli Hill burial ground is not believed to be in danger of flooding.

The UN reports that around one million people have been displaced in Thatta and Qambar-Shadadkot districts since Wednesday because of floodwaters.

The floods began in the mountainous northwest about a month ago with the onset of monsoon rains and have moved slowly down the country toward the coast in the south, inundating vast swaths of prime agricultural land and damaging or destroying more than one million homes.

More than eight million people are in need of emergency assistance across the country.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/28/pakistan-floods.html#ixzz0xv0d9CpV

[Aristophrenia]

13. It has begun -

Do not ever say you were not warned - do not say you did not know - do not say there was nothing you could do -
It has well and truly begun.

Global warming - the face of our future - your future - is right here. What have we become that we did nothing, zero, to fix our own soiled bed.

[Turborama]

14. I have to agree, with a heavy heart

Aristophrenia, your poetic words ring very true.

"Global warming - the face of our future - your future - is right here. What have we become that we did nothing, zero, to fix our own soiled bed." Indeed.

You may find this article I posted recently interesting: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9028242">This Is the Hottest Year Ever, and the Climate Catastrophe Has Begun

[sabrina 1]

16. Greed and corruption, lies and hubris and apathy

all made it impossible to do anything.

I am reminded of the criminal who was responsible for the Mine Disaster earlier this year in WV, Don Blankenstein, teabagger. His response to environmentalists was to refer to them as 'Greeniacs' until his greed contributed to the deaths of those 29 miners.

The Greeniacs were right. But he's still rich and he's only one of many who are directly responsible for what is happening to this planet.

[backwoodsbob]

22. his name is Blankenship

why give him a jewish sounding name?

[Turborama]

23. I read it as a joke

Making his name sound like that other monster, Frankenstein.

[sam sarrha]

18. it has only begun.. there is still a little ice melting at the poles, Hell on Earth will come very

shortly after it is gone, which will be soon.

when the ocean currents stop, the Equator will heat way up creating mega hurricanes 1200 to 1600 miles in diameter, with winds over 200+ mph will roar up like clock work.. the last time the Thermo-cline stopped the ice got 1.5 miles thick. it takes 5 lbs of red hot cast iron to vaporize 1 lb of water. the weight of the ice depressed the earth's surface so deep that the Great Lakes still have 1800 feet to rebound from the weight of the last ice age's deposits... it is still rebounding.

you haven't seen anything yet, the last bit of ice left could just slide out into the ocean in a couple decades.. all our predictions have been wrong.. there could be a tipping point before the ice is gone, the Ice Age starts within around 5 years of a certain point of the ocean currents slowing.. it will be like a train wreck when it starts.. all over this earth.

we have been in an "Ice Age" for the last 125,000,000 years, with only some stable warm periods. some places will be arid, others wet.. some too hot some to cold. none likely to be just right

[sabrina 1]

19. I hope you are wrong ...

But for many people around the world, such as Pakistan, it has already begun ...:cry:

[sam sarrha]

20. the human population, it is estimated will be reduced to less than 1 billion this time. when the

last ice age started the human population was reduced to less than 1200 mating pairs, after the eruption of Toba

[sam sarrha]

21. i'm not wrong, this has happened a couple of times with the same results. the Holocene thermocline

cools the equator and warms the upper latitudes.. england, canada and most of europe and Russia will become uninhabitable for at least 800-1200 years.