Record breaking rain floods Sialkot, marking the heaviest downpour in 49 years and bringing the city to an almost complete stop. A record 405 millimeters of rain fell within just 24 hours, breaking the previous record of 339 millimeters set in 1976.
This record-breaking rains overloaded pipes, flooded all area roads and waterlogged entire neighborhoods-especially Rang Pura, Shahab Pura, and Prem Nagar thousands of people in high danger areas. As transport has been disrupted and power cut adding to this issue, schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors.
To respond to this situation, emergency services were on the move but they still faced difficulties to overcome the situation since the routes were flooded and cell phone lines were down, which highlights how hard it is to deal with such extreme weather conditions in Sialkot urban city
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The impact of this rain went even beyond Sialkot in the Gujrat district where water at the dangerous Head Marala Barrage came close to its cusp of 1.1 million cusecs. The inflow level increased to more than 900,000 secs, and this forced many nearby villages to be moved early.
Likewise, Bhimber nullah has already gone to high flood and led to panic among the peopleof the villages like Galyana and Do Do Barsala which are likely to find themselves underwater in case the water level was to increase further. Government spokesmen including Punjab Housing and Urban development minister Bilal Yasin made his way to the situation to monitor relief and rescue operations.
Governments were quick in enforcing Section 144 restricting communal circulation around rivers and streams and local holidays were declared to reduce the risks. Even though rescue teams are still moving citizens to safety, there is a grave sense of necessity to address the issue of flood control infrastructure as well as better planning of cities to prevent such disaster risks in the future.
