Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: At least three people including two children and a woman were killed in a long heavy downpour spill that devastated normal life in the last two days destroyed dozens of homes and killed several pet animals in various areas of the district Khyber, officials said on Monday.
Assistant commissioner of Landikotal Irshad Mohmand told this scribe that they had received a picture of more than thirty homes damaged or destroyed due to the flash floods and heavy downpours.
Flash floods also washed away link roads in various villages, residents said.
Provincial minister Muhammad Adnan Qadri directed local administration and PDMA to collect the damages data as soon as possible and assist the affected people. He said soon he would also visit the affected families to condole the human lives and would take up the matter with the chief minister.
A roof of a house caved in in Sheen Drang locality in Bara Tehsil, killing g two children and a woman.
The pak-Afghan highway built in 2015 at the cost of Rs,8726.624 million closed due to having no bridges at nine water spliway places from Jamrud to Landikotal which were the prolonged demand of residents to save lives from flash floods.
Irshad said rain and flash floods damaged houses and other compounds in Landikotal, Torkham, Kam Shalman and Loey Shalman, Bazaar Zakhakhel, Pasedkhel, Khyber Zakhakhel and other villages. The Hujra of legendary Pashtu poet Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari was also damaged due to the rain.
The official said their assessment teams along with the Provincial Disaster Management Authority(PDMA) were working to identify the whole damages to provide them with initial help. He said due to the non-stop rain raining their teams could not be reached far-flung areas so far.
He said several pet animals were also reported dead due to rain while a few vehicles were also washed away in floods.
The official said roughly 30 to 40 homes have been damaged so far while they have received nine applications for compensation. He said tents were provided to some affected families nearby in Landikotal.
He said they would issue a report on total damages due to the rain and flash floods in Landikotal in a day or two.
