Heaviest rainfall in 50 years sees most of Pakistan and India flooded

More than 400 people have died in the Indian and Pakistani region of Kashmir, the victim of the heaviest rains to fall in that region in 50 years.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The international community has criticized both nation's responses to the crisis, as thousands are still trapped on rooftops awaiting rescue.

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On the Indian side, the city of Srinagar lays submerged along with more than 2,000 villages.

"The damage is shocking," said a senior official from India's National Disaster Response Force said in New Delhi. "People have been stranded on the rooftops of their homes for the last three days in some parts of Kashmir."

The anonymous official said disaster-response teams would have been deployed earlier, but "we were all caught off guard because there was not a single warning issued by the weather office. The flash floods took us by surprise."

India's meteorological department had forecasted the heavy rains last week, but the Central Water Commission-the organization charged with issuing flood advisories-did not warn the state.

Roughly 47,000 people have been evacuated from their homes on India's side of the region, and 217 were reported dead on as of September 9.

Relief efforts by the Indian Air Force has resulted in 550 tons of relief material being supplied, and 80 medical teams have established several emergency health services in schools and health centers.

Pakistan has suffered a comparable death toll, losing at least 231 people because of the floods.

"With the memory of the catastrophic floods of recent years still fresh, many are wondering why the present calamity was not better predicted, flood warnings were not issued with more urgency, and mitigation measures not undertaken speedily," said an editorial by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

In Pakistan, people still remember 2010, when the worst floods in generations affected some 20 million people and damage to infrastructure ran into billions of dollars.

Indian soldiers have managed to rescue families via boats or helicopters, but many more are still stranded.

"Fortunately, it is not raining in Kashmir today and we are now getting a chance to send our teams across the region to help tens of thousands of people who have been displaced," said Indian Defense Ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar.

But in Pakistan, things are not going as well. Saeed Qureshi, an official with Pakistan's State Disaster Management Authority said that the amount of rain has rendered emergency plans useless.

"Nobody can fight with nature," he said. "We had made a contingency plan, identifying vulnerable populations along the banks of rivers and torrents, but rains with unexpected density wreaked havoc on the hilly areas beyond our imagination."

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