PESHAWAR: The devastating floods that struck several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday badly damaged infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, as well as the electricity installations in the affected areas, besides killing over 200 people.
With damage assessment in progress, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said seven houses were destroyed and 38 were damaged in the province, mostly in the Swat district. It also reported the destruction of three schools and damage to three.
The PDMA said that the rainfall would continue until August 21 in different parts of the province.
Deaths and damage to infrastructure were recorded in Swat, Buner, Shangla, Bajaur, Lower Dir, Battagram and Mansehra districts.
Meanwhile, the KP government declared one-day mourning on Saturday (today) to honour the five crew members of the Mi-17 helicopter who embraced martyrdom when the aircraft crashed during a rescue operation.
PDMA says rainfall to continue until 21st; govt announces one-day mourning to honour helicopter crash victims
According to a notification issued by the administration department, the national flag will be flown at half-mast across the province as a mark of respect.
The Rescue 1122 teams shifted 2,071 stranded people, including 300 schoolchildren, to safety in Buner district following heavy rainfall and flash floods.
Deputy commissioner Kashif Qayyum said that an emergency had been declared across the district as relief efforts continued in the calamity-hit areas.
“Helicopters are being used to carry out rescue operations in remote and inaccessible regions,” he said.
Mr Qayyum said that floodwaters had submerged Pir Baba Bazaar and its neighbourhood, while a mosque in Gokand was destroyed and a large number of animals perished.
Also, several roads were blocked.
Officials said the number of people, who went missing during the flooding, would be known only after waters receded.
In Mansehra, police rescued seven tourists stranded in the upper parts of Kaghan Valley. They had visited Simicsar Lake but were trapped by rain and landslides.
Rains lashed the district throughout the day, dangerously swelling the Indus, Siren and Kunhar rivers along with their tributaries.
The district administration banned tourist visits to the Siren Valley.
Landslides and uprooted trees blocked the Nawazabad and Batrasi roads, which police later cleared for traffic.
Meanwhile, passengers and tourists travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan were stranded in Upper Kohistan after the local administration restricted movement on the Karakoram Highway in the Uchar Nullah area due to high water levels in the Indus River.
Abbottabad city was badly hit as almost all main roads were inundated, creating flood-like conditions throughout the area. The most affected arteries were PMA Kakul Road, Mirpur Mandian Road, Supply Road, Karakoram Highway, Sethi Masjid Road, Iqbal Road, Banda Dalazak, Banda Khair Ali Khan Road, Trakana, and the Link Road near Ciena Laboratory.
Most drainage systems were clogged, leading to rainwater overflowing onto the streets and entering houses to damage goods.
Traffic remained paralysed for hours, especially on the KKH in front of Ayub Teaching Hospital where swift floodwaters swept away several vehicles. Some vehicles broke down due to accumulated mud and debris.
Meanwhile, more than 25 tourists along with their vehicles got stranded in Shahi area due to high water flow on the other side of Kambat and Shahi areas of Lower Dir.
They were evacuated by personnel of the Frontier Corps 181 Wing, Rescue 1122 and the district administration.
Meanwhile, several link roads in Lower Dir remained blocked due to landslides triggered by heavy rain. Candidates for teaching posts in Talash and other areas struggled to reach examination centres.
Traffic was suspended near Gulabad Bazaar at Safruno after floodwaters damaged the road.
Heavy rainfall and flash floods severely damaged the power infrastructure in Swat, as floodwaters entered the 132kv grid station, causing the tripping of 41 feeders and the complete suspension of electricity transmission across the region. The feeder supplying power to Malam Jabba was also submerged, causing extensive damage.
The flash floods washed away several electricity poles and transformers.
On the instructions of federal power minister Awais Ahmad Laghari, the Peshawar Electric Supply Company began efforts to restore power supply.
It deployed additional workforce to expedite the rehabilitation process and dispatched transformers, poles, cables and heavy machinery to support field operations.
Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025