400,000 cusecs cross Marala without major damage

LAHORE: A peak of around 400,000 cusecs, which is categorised as very high flood146, crossed the Chenab river at Marala on Thursday without causing any major damage, amid forecasts of more rains in the Sialkot region and other cities across the country.

Lahore and Gujranwala divisions too are likely to have some more spells of heavy to very heavy rain on Friday and Saturday.

Rain also continued to lash several cities of the country for the third day running, paralysing life. The heaviest spell was reported from Sialkot, which received 114mm of rain.

The AFP news agency quoted a spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) as saying that 96 people had died across the country over the past two weeks. Up to 96 people have been killed so far and 99 others injured during the monsoon rains and floods so far, Rima Zuberi said.

A population of 89,439 has been affected and 2,372 houses were destroyed. At least 1,909 houses were partially damaged by the rains and floods, she added.

Officials in Punjab, which has been hit hard this week by particularly heavy rains, said that they were still collecting damage reports from different districts.

Meanwhile, the peak in the Chenab moved to Khanki where it was in very high flood. The Indus at Chashma, the Chenab at Marala and Qadirabad were in high flood. The Indus at Kalabagh, Guddu and the Kabul at Nowshera were in medium flood.

There was low flood in the Indus at Tarbela, Taunsa and Sukkur and the Sutlej at Ganda Singhwala.

The Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) expected high flood in the Indus at Taunsa, from 575,000 to 600,000 cusecs, on Friday and Saturday.

Tributaries of Ravi and Chenab rivers in the Sialkot region will continue to be in very high flood level during the next 24 hours.

The Met Office has forecast widespread rain-thundershower with isolated heavy to very heavy falls in northeast Punjab (Gujranwala and Lahore divisions) and Kashmir on Friday and Saturday. Widespread thunderstorm /rain with heavy falls at isolated places and very heavy rains at one or two places was also expected over Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal and Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad and Karachi in the next 24 hours.

Scattered thunderstorm/ rain with isolated heavy rains is likely over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Quetta, Kalat, Zhob, Naseerabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Multan, D G Khan divisions and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The Met Office has warned that most of the soil in Gujranwala and Lahore

divisions had already been saturated due to recent rains and more rains might cause flooding in vulnerable areas of these divisions on Friday and Saturday.The forecast was issued because of the rain generating persistent westerly wave over Kashmir and the low pressure over northeastern Rajasthan and adjoining Bahawalpur division.

On Thursday, Lower Dir received 81mm of rain, Jacobabad 78mm, Lahore Airport 65mm, Chhor 61mm, Gujranwala 42mm, Jhelum 37mm, Sialkot Airport and Saidu Sharif 36mm (each), D.G. Khan 28mm, Hyderabad 22mm, Mangla 16mm, Mirpurkhas 12mm, Pattan 10mm, Rohri 9mm, Thatta 8mm, Moenjodaro and Badin 7mm (each), Mirkhani, Mithi and Islamabad Zero Point 5mm (each).

It remained heavily overcast in Lahore throughout the day. Rain was intermittent and light, turning somewhat heavy in the evening. It was continuing till the filing of this report amid forecast of very heavy rain in the night.