HYDERABAD/SUK­KUR/NAWABSHAH/BADIN: After Thursday night’s powerful dust storm, coupled with heavy rainfall lashing the entire Sindh, several spells of heavy, moderate and light rain continued to pound most areas of the province on Friday.

Intermittent drizzle continued into late evening hours. A man was electrocuted in the Golarchi area of Badin district.

The rains turned the weather pleasant after several months of sweltering heat.

Two brief spells of rainfall in Hyderabad added to the miseries of the people hit by flooding of low-lying lanes, roads and streets as well as absence of electricity, in some areas for 24 hours and most other areas for up to 16 hours.

The Met office recorded 14mm and 16mm of rainfall at its airport and city office, respectively, on Friday. On Thursday, 21mm and 29mm of rainfall was recorded at the observatories, respectively.

The drainage of rainwater accumulated in low-lying areas was badly affected due to unavailability of power supply since Thursday night. The Hyderabad Water & Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC) faced tremendous difficulties in running its four facilities using generators after the system stopped working.

Hesco spokesman Sadiq Kubar said that 11kV poles had fallen in Sarfaraz Baba subdivision which prompted management to close five more feeders for safety purposes. He said on Friday evening that 31 feeders were yet to be energised. He said that rainfall had affected the system in different areas.

The electricity outage also disrupted internet and telephone lines of the Pakistan Telecom­munication Company Limited (PTCL). “The backup batteries stopped working while power supply is not there in many areas,” said a PTCL official.

According to a resident of Hirabad, even mobile phone services remained disturbed. The internet service in Hirabad’s several pockets was badly affected.

Rainwater accumulated in low lying areas of Liaquat Colony, Hali Road, Sabzi Mandi and Makki Shah road. Qadam Gah Maula Ali road was the worst-affected, posing serious issues to visitors. The number of visitors to Qadam Gah has already increased over the last few days for Muharram congregations.

In Tando Jam, the two seminary students who were killed when the ceiling of their seminary had collapsed during Thursday night windstorm and rainfall, were laid to rest on Friday morning in the Noor Shah graveyard.

Eleven other students were injured in the incident.

In Sukkur, strong winds paired with a 15-minute downpour, hit most areas of the district on Thursday night causing collapse of Sepco network in the entire region. Countless feeders either stopped functioning or were downed for public safety consideration. Sukkur district remained without electricity supply for about 16 hours.

Thursday’s storm had blown away countless hoardings, billboards, solar plates and rooftops of straw-mud houses in different areas of Sukkur district.

Even after it was restored, the region was hit by frequent tripping of feeders and local breakdowns.

Sports Complex pavilion shelter collapses

The shelter over a pavilion of sport complex at the Higher Secondary School in Khanpur Mahar town of Ghotki also collapsed when strong winds hit the city on Thursday night.

The iron shelter fell on support columns and walls and broke down in pieces, some of them onto the adjacent houses which sustained considerable damage. However, no one was injured.

Substandard material used in the construction was blamed for the collapse.

According to locals, parts of the pavilion roof had partially collapsed several times in the recent past.

Different towns of Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze and Sanghar districts also received more rains on Friday in several heavy, moderate and light spells.

Rainwater submerged roads and streets in Nawabshah, Qazi Ahmed, Daur, Bandi, Jam Sahab and Gupchani in the district.

Electricity supply was suspended soon after it started rain. Municipal workers faced hardship in clearing roads and streets due to absence of electricity.

Similar situation occurred after rainfall in most cities and towns of Nuashahro Feroze and Sanghar districts.

Electrocution

In Badin, a man was electrocuted after he came in contract with a live wire during rain in Golarchi on Friday. Abdul Kareem Jutt was going to a shop to buy something when electrocuted. He was rushed to the town’s healthcare centre where the doctors pronounced him dead.

The rain started at around 9:30pm on Thursday and continued for over half an hour. Electricity supply went off with the first drop of rain plunging the city into dark. It was restored after 10 hours.

Two picnickers drown

Two picnickers drowned in the Indus River and Kalri Baghar (KB) Feeder on Friday Ali and Raza were bathing in the river near a village in the Kohsar area when they lost their balance.

Locals jumped into the water and took them out but Raza could not survive.

In another incident, Babar Bhanbhro, a resident of Qasimabad, drowned in KB Feeder near Al Manzar recreational spot. Rescue 1122 staff rushed to the spot and carried out a hectic search but he could not be recovered.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2025