Pakistan floods again

Pakistan suffered dreadful floods in 2010, when nearly  2,000 people were killed, and last year, when the death toll was around 250.   Now at least 22 people have been drowned in flash floods in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while at least another 20 have perished across the border in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan in the heaviest rains there for more than 30 years.

Around 20,000 people have been driven from their homes, schools have closed, and transport has been disrupted.   A number of the casualties occurred when buildings collapsed, and rescue workers say they fear more bodies may be found as the waters recede.

The Pakistan floods of 2010 affected up to 20 million people, and left about a fifth of the country under water, while the total cost of the damage inflicted was up to £30 billion.

 (See also my blogs of Aug 11 and 23 and Sept 7, 2010, and Jan 27 and Sept 19, 2011.)

*On this web page, you can read the first chapter of my book Disaster! absolutely free - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/read/2940000926659

India's big freeze + Whitehall Palace

Every year in India, hundreds of people die in the summer from extreme heat, but in the winter the cold is a serious hazard, especially for the poor. This winter, up to 100 people have perished, mainly in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh – most of them homeless or old people.

Six years ago, the death toll reached an estimated 150 – with half of the victims in Uttar Pradesh, and the others in Rajasthan and Bihar. In Bihar, the authorities ordered bonfires to be lit to help keep the homeless warm.

On this day….312 years ago, what was once the greatest palace in Europe was burned down. London’s Whitehall Palace covered 23 acres, but it came to grief because a servant left some linen drying by a fire.

The flames got out of control and destroyed almost the whole of the complex apart from the magnificent Banqueting House, outside which Charles I was executed, which can be visited to this day. For the story, see The Disastrous History of London.

Indian bridge collapses

Up to 49 building workers are feared dead after the collapse of a section of a new 100 yard bridge across the Chambai River in Rajasthan, northern India. Some of the victims were flung into the river and others buried under rubble.

The bridge was a joint enterprise between an Indian and a South Korean company. Police have arrested two project managers, and have filed charges against another dozen company officials.

India has suffered a number of bridge collapses in recent years. One of the deadliest happened near the town of Veligonda in Andhra Pradesh in October 2005, when a flash flood swept away a small bridge, and an express train was derailed killing at least 114.

In December 2006, a dozen railway passengers were killed when a bridge collapsed onto a train passing beneath at Bhagalpur in Bihar, while nine months later, in September 2007, up to 30 people died when a flyover being built in Hyderabad gave way.