ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Torrential rains in Islamabad, Lahore and other cities in Punjab, Dera Ismail Khan and other areas on Monday left four people dead, paralysed civic life and inundated main thoroughfares, creating serious problems for motorists and pedestrians.
According to Met office, new monsoon currents had entered upper parts of the country, causing scattered rains or thundershower in Islamabad, Lahore, Okara, Dera Ismail Khan and scattered rains/thundershower in Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Peshawer, Kohat, Malakand, Hazara divisions and Kashmir.
An afternoon cloudburst in Islamabad, which continued for three hours and yielded 176mm of rains, flooded main streets and caused heavy traffic jams.
Rainwater entered a number of important government and private buildings, including Parliament House, Secretariat Bloc and the basement of Polyclinic.
In Lahore, about 153mm of rains caused massive power breakdowns and severe traffic jams for hours.
Four people lost their lives and seven others injured when roof of their house in Baghbanpura area collapsed.
Almost one-third of Lahore was without electricity for four hours because of tripping of 87 feeders. A number of signboards in DHA came down, trees were uprooted in Muslim and Garden towns.
A portion of the Jahangir Road near Mughalpura caved in along with footpath, causing an eight-foot-deep ditch, badly hampering movement of vehicular traffic on the Canal Bank Road. Water also entered underpasses at FC College, Muslim Town, Jail Road and New Campus.
The Met office said that Islamabad received 176mm of rain, Lahore 153mm, Okara 80mm, Dera Ismail Khan 62mm, Sialkot 59mm, Dir 55mm, Bhakkar 50mm, Peshawar 47mm, Risalpur 46mm, Sialkot 42mm and Rahwali 31mm.It said the spell would continue for another two days, causing scattered rain/thundershower and isolated heavy rainfall in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir. It also predicted isolated rain/thundershower in eastern Sindh. The Met office also said that medium to high flood was expected in Deg, Palku, Bhed, Hasri and Basantar nullahs from 6pm on Monday to 6pm on Tuesday and it was likely to inundate vulnerable areas of Norowal, Sialkot and Gujrat districts.
APP adds: The Director General of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast widespread monsoon rains/thundershowers with isolated heavy rainfalls in different parts of the country till Aug 14.
Mr Arif Mehmood said that more monsoon rains were expected in upper parts of the country with isolated heavy rains in Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Bannu, Kohat and Peshawa.
He said the rain spell was likely to continue this week and then the weather system would move to southern Punjab and Sindh from August 10 till August 14 and widespread rains were likely to hit Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad and Karachi, with isolated heavy rainfall in Thatha, Badin and Mithi.
He said the monsoon was likely to remain active in the country over the current and the coming week and during the active phase, two to three strong weather systems were expected to enter the country and bring in their wake heavy rains in different parts of the country.
He further said that there was also the possibility of localised urban/flash flooding in vulnerable areas of northeast Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and south-west Punjab.
According to flood forecasting division, River Chenab at Khanki and Baloki was in low flood while at Marala it was in medium-to-high flood.
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