RAWALPINDI: A woman and three of her children died while another went missing after a wall in their home collapsed due to heavy rainfall in Morgah in the early hours of Wednesday.

Police said the death toll from the incident could rise to five if the missing child’s body is found.

Rescue 1122 staff are still trying to find 11-year-old Abdul Wahab, who has been missing since this morning when his home was flooded.

Morgah Station House Officer (SHO) Malik Zaheeruddin Babar told Dawn that chances that the missing child will be found alive are slim.

Police and eyewitnesses said rainwater entered Riaz Ali Shah’s home after a wall collapsed because water had accumulated in the empty plot next door.

The investigating officer said Mr Shah, who is from Battagram, had been renting the house for 15 years. He lived there with his wives Dil Shad and Musarat Bibi. He had five sons and a daughter with his first wife and two sons with his second.

He said all the family members were sleeping on the ground floor of the house, which is located in a low-lying area.

Downtown Rawalpindi flooded due to choked sewerage system

Musarat Bibi, 35, Inayat Ali Shah, 25, Nabeela Bibi, 20, and Zaheer Ali Shah, 10, died in the incident while Abdul Wahab is missing and presumed dead.

Rescue 1122 staff were able to rescue Liaquat Ali, 17, Zain Ali, 13, Ghazanfar Ali, 12, Iftikhar Ali and Riaz Ali Shah, 55. The survivors suffered some minor wounds and received first aid, while Dil Shad was taken to Benazir Bhutto Hospital and later discharged.

Separately, a boy was swept away in Nullah Leh in Dhoke Chiragh Din on Wednesday.

Rescue services said a group of boys were playing on the banks of the nullah when one of them slipped and drowned.

Low-lying areas flooded

Low-lying areas were flooded by the heavy rainfall in Rawalpindi and Islamabad on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Met Office has predicted more rainfall in the next 48 hours.

The district administration, civil defence department and Rescue 1122 were on high alert to deal with emergencies, fearing flooding in Leh Nullah, but the water level at Gawalmandi Bridge was six feet below flood level.

The Meteorological Department recorded 111 millimetres of rain at Zero Point, 53mm in Saidpur and Bokra, 49mm in Golra, 29mm at Islamabad International Airport, 75mm in Chaklala and 72mm in Shamsabad.

A Met official added that widespread rain and wind-thunderstorms with isolated heavy rainfall are expected in the Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, D.G. Khan, Kalat and Hazara divisions, Islamabad, Kashmir, at scattered locations in the Bahawalpur, Multan, Malakand, Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu, Kohat, D.I. Khan, Zhob and Sibbi divisions, and at isolated places in the Sukkur, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad divisions.

He said normal rainfall is expected on Thursday and heavy rainfall on Friday.

The rainfall on Tuesday began at 11:45pm and continued until 3am on Wednesday, he added.

The continuous spell of rain exposed civic bodies’ claims that nullahs and drains had been cleared so water could flow smoothly. The sewerage system in the downtown areas choked and water accumulated in various places.

Water in Bazaar Kallan, Dingi Khoi, Raja Bazaar, Akalgarh, Nadeem Colony, Javed Colony, Dhoke Ratta, Gunjmandi, Jamia Masjid Road, Banni Chowk, Sadiqabad, Bohar Bazaar, Naya Mohallah, Mohanpura, and other areas was knee-deep.

City residents spent the night draining rainwater from their homes, and in many parts of the city and cantonment traffic lights stopped working, leading to chaos in the morning.

Some motorists were even trapped by the rain near the Soan River and were rescued by Rescue 1122, a rescue official said.

Electricity in the city areas was shut down due to the rain and restored in the morning. An Islamabad Electric Supply Company official said: “Electricity in the area around Leh Nullah was suspended to avoid any untoward situation.”

Rainwater also entered the basement of the Holy Family Hospital, but did not damage any machinery or disrupt patients as the hospital’s management had managed to clear the space.

Ahmed Ali, a resident of Javed Colony, said his family woke up soon after it started raining to move electronics to the upper storey of his house, which is next to a nullah. He said that the rain stopped at 3am, but the water did not recede until early morning.

The roads and streets looked like small ponds, Khayaban-i-Sir Syed resident Sajid Hussain said. He added that the area along Leh Nullah was vulnerable and people living in katchi abadis had to take shelter in local markets.

Water in the Leh Nullah touched the 15ft mark at Kattarian Bridge and 12ft at Gawalmandi Bridge, Water and Sanitation Agency Managing Director Mohammad Tanveer said. He said the water did not rise to the dangerous level of 18ft.

He said Deputy Commissioner Ali Randhawa visited various parts of the city during the rainfall to inspect the district administration’s arrangements to prevent flooding.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2019