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Pakistan declares emergency as flooding displaces millions

Flooding in Pakistan has now killed hundreds and displaced millions as the country declared an emergency on Friday. Photo courtesy of the Punjab Emergency Service Department
Flooding in Pakistan has now killed hundreds and displaced millions as the country declared an emergency on Friday. Photo courtesy of the Punjab Emergency Service Department

Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The government of Pakistan declared an emergency on Friday, amid heavy flooding that has killed hundreds of people so far.

A total of 34 people have died in the past 24 hours, while more than 900 have been killed since June, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority.

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Millions of people have been affected by the heavy flooding so far, which has destroyed entire neighborhoods.

A monsoon in July was directly responsible for at least 150 deaths

Karachi, the busy port city in southern Pakistan, has seen some of the worst rains, covering whole swaths of neighborhoods, leaving millions stranded.

At least 33 million people have been affected by the flooding so far, with estimates of 30 million without shelter and left in flooded streets with unsanitary water. The country has a population of 220.9 million.

"Pakistan's flood emergency continues as the country is deluged in unrelenting superfloods. As per @ndmapk latest reports,now River Indus is expected to flood to VERY HIGH levels with releases from Tarbela Dam ranging from 500,000 cusecs to 700,000 cusecs on Saturday and Sunday," Pakistan climate change minister Sherry Rehman said on Twitter on Friday.

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"Reports are also coming in on the Exceptionally High flooding expected in the Kabul River at Nowshehra in the next 48 hours. Severe flooding is also expected to continue in the nullahs of Balochistan during the next 24-hours."

"We are battling the biggest monsoon floods seen in living memory in Pakistan. Bigger than the 2010 superfloods. The catastrophe has stretched all resources so thin on the ground that human vulnerability is high, & without Intl help many r at risk," Rehman tweeted.

The country has appealed for international aid.

On Thursday, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 184,000 people had been displaced to relief camps.

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