21 Dead, 250,000 Homeless In Wake Of Pakistan Cyclone - AFP

Pakistani rescuers struggled Wednesday to reach 250,000 people left homeless, and in some cases clinging to rooftops and trees, by a cyclone that lashed the coast and killed 21 people. Cyclone Yemyin roared in from the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, days after thunderstorms left around 230 people dead in Karachi and nearly 150 people were killed by rains in neighbouring India. The UN said the destruction in South Asia -- plus floods in Britain and heatwaves in southern Europe -- showed that the world must be better prepared to cope with the impact of climate change.

"The cyclone and the rain have left around 250,000 people homeless," Khuda Bakhsh Baloch, the relief commissioner of badly-hit Baluchistan province, told AFP, adding that dozens of villages were under water.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the immediate airlift of blankets, food, tents and medicine because several main highways had been badly damaged, an official statement said.

Telephone links were down to most of the affected region but residents who could be contacted in Kechh, one of Baluchistan's worst affected districts, said they had seen no sign of aid-bearing helicopters. "The situation is grave here. People including women and children have been clinging on to trees and rooftops since late Tuesday," Jahangir Aslam, from the town of Turbat, told AFP.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Pakistan_Cyclone_Leaves_21_Dead_And_250000_Homeless_999.html

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That is interesting. Good thing those two are such close friends...