Cloudbursts Spurred by Climate Change Leave 300+ Dead

Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 300 people in India and Pakistan and left scores of others missing, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries. Flooding began a day earlier in Indian-controlled Kashmir and spread to the north and northwest in Pakistan, triggered by sudden, intense downpours over small areas, per the AP. The floods and subsequent landslides injured dozens of people and forced the evacuation and rescue of thousands of others, particularly in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a contributing factor. In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said. At least 300 people were rescued Thursday following a powerful cloudburst that triggered floods and landslides, but the operation was halted overnight. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away.

At least 50 seriously injured people were treated at hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris. Meanwhile, in northern and northwestern Pakistan, flash floods killed at least 243 people, including 157 who died Friday in the Buner district in northern Pakistan. An official says that dozens of people are still missing and rescue operations were underway. At an emergency meeting, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered his country's disaster-management authority to ensure the evacuation of tourists and all those hit by the floods.

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The latest fatalities bring the total number of rain-related deaths to 556 since June 26, per the National Disaster Management Authority. A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall in Pakistan from June 24 to July 23 was 10% to 15% heavier due to global warming. In 2022, the country's worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage. More here.