Pakistan restores electricity and reopens roads in areas where floods killed over 300

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan restored 70% of electricity and reopened damaged roads in the country’s north and northwest after flash floods killed more than 300 people, officials said Tuesday.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told a news conference that engineers were working to fully restore the electricity system that was knocked out by flooding last week.

Most roads have been cleared, facilitating the supply of food and other essential items to flood-affected areas, he said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered authorities to accelerate recovery efforts in Buner, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where torrential rains and a cloudburst Friday killed at least 280 people, Tarar said.

Monsoon rains triggered floods that killed more than 700 people nationwide since June 26, the National Disaster Management Authority reported, while Tarar said more than 25,000 people have been evacuated.

Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif said military doctors are treating survivors and engineers are repairing damaged infrastructure. Troops using helicopters also have delivered food and supplies to remote villages cut off by floods and landslides.

Last week’s flooding in Buner was among the worst since the rains began late last month. Search teams aided by army sniffer dogs are still combing the district for about 150 missing people, rescue official Mohammad Suhail said.

Buner residents accused authorities of failing to issue timely evacuation warnings and community elders said no alerts were broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, a traditional warning system in remote areas. Officials said the cloudburst struck so suddenly that warnings could not be delivered.

Authorities have warned of a possible repeat of Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 floods, which killed nearly 1,700 people and were blamed on climate change.