August 23, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 9, 1428

HYDERABAD, Aug 22: An old man and his son were struck by lightning in a village in Tando Mohammad Khan district late on Tuesday night and trains traffic was disrupted as rains continued to lash parts of the province on the second consecutive day on Wednesday.

Hundreds of passengers have been waiting for hours at Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Tando Adam and Kotri railway stations as the rains have considerably delayed arrival of up and down country trains.

In a tragic incident, lightning killed Allah Dino Mallah, 60, and his son, Mohammad Saleh Mallah, in Esso Mallah village of Tando Mohammad Khan district late on Tuesday night when they were working in their farmland.

In Hyderabad, it began to rain at 8.10 pm on Tuesday and was still raining when this story was filed. The rains led to the worst traffics jams in parts of the city and Latifabad where hundreds of vehicles got stuck up on roads.

In Hyder Chowk area, a rickshaw diver fell into a ditch dug up by contractor late on Tuesday night following heavy rains. Neither the contractor nor the district government bothered to fill it.

Hundreds of railway passengers are waiting for the arrival of trains from Karachi and each train is running three, four and six hours behind schedule on average.

Power broke down in the wake of rains, which had been lashing Thatta intermittently since Tuesday. Thatta’s adjoining towns Mirpur Bathoro, Mirpur Sakro, Jhoke Sharif, Daro, Bannu and a number of coastal towns and settlements also received rain.

A number of shades of poultry farms near the town were blown away due strong winds that preceded the rains and low-lying areas were submerged in water.

It stared raining in Sanghar and its adjoining towns and villages rains in the morning on Wednesday and continued for about an hour. It again rained in the evening causing considerable damage to cotton, chilli, tomato and onion crops and chilli and onion nurseries. Chak No 22, 23, 25, 24, 39, Khadro, Chotiyarioon and Sinjhoro were the worst hit areas.

Heavy winds which preceded the rains caused damage to sugarcane crop and rendered about 30 per cent crop destroyed. Power supply suspended in some villages since Tuesday had not been restored so far.

Power and communications system remained out of order for hours in Dadu and Jamshoro districts in the wake of heavy rains and traffic remained off the roads. It rained heavily in Dadu, Khudabad, Sita Road, Moundar, Johi, Sehwan, Sann, Manjhand, Budhapur, Jamshoro and Kotri.

Rainwater has flooded roads and streets of Mirpurkhas and its adjoining towns and submerged low-lying areas in two feet water following heavy rains.

Power supply to many areas of the city was disconnected after transformers went out of order in heavy rains, which badly hit business activities.

There are reports that more than 400 telephones have gone dead and a railway underpass has been submerged in rainwater.

Drainage system completely collapsed flooding roads and streets in Naushahro Feroze, Moro, Padidan, Mithiani, Bhirya Road, Tharushah, Bhirya and their adjoining villages in the wake of heavy rains, which continued for more than an hour and a half on Wednesday.