QADIR NAGAR: Two days before his wedding, Noor Muhammad had a long phone call with his mother, just hours before devastating floods killed her along with 23 family members and relatives.

“I cannot explain how happy she was,” he says, standing by the rubble of his family’s 36-room house, perched on the bank of a flood-water channel.

This village in mountainous Buner district has been the worst-hit by recent massive rains in the country, accounting for over 200 deaths.

“Everything was finished,” sobbed Muhammad, 25, as mourners sat at his damaged house to offer condolences, saying there was nothing left when he got home except for rubble and heavy rocks.

“The flood came, a huge flood came, it swept away everything, home, mother, sister, brother, my uncle, my grandfather and children.”

Muhammad works as a labourer in Malaysia. He arrived at the Islamabad airport on August 15 to drive home, where his wedding preparations were in full swing for two days later.

Instead, he ended up attending two dozen funerals. They included his mother, a brother and a sister, he said, adding that his father and another brother only survived because they had come to pick him up at the airport.

The rest of the fatalities were among his uncles’ families, who shared the house built by his grandfather, as well as relatives who were to attend the wedding.

His fiance, however, survived as her home was away from the worst of the damage.

“We and our elders have never seen a storm like this in our lives,” said Muhammad Zeb, 28, a resident in Buner. It was a complete chaos, and massive disaster, he added.

“You can see for yourself, this was a beautiful place with homes. But now, as you can see, the flood and storm have swept everything away.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025