(However it is a good warning to all of us. We need to learn to prepare and learn how to use and serve what we have in our home food storage. )
Death toll from Pakistan floods rises to 1,100
AP – Pakistani villagers collect their belongings from their houses collapsed by heavy flooding in Dera Ismail …
SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-08-01-13-06-32PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The death toll from massive floods in northwestern Pakistan rose to 1,100 Sunday as rescue workers struggled to save more than 27,000 people still trapped by the raging water.
The rescue effort was aided by a slackening of the monsoon rains that have caused the worst flooding in decades in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province. But as flood waters started to recede, authorities began to understand the full scale of the disaster.
“Aerial monitoring is being conducted, and it has shown that whole villages have washed away, animals have drowned and grain storages have washed away,” said Latifur Rehman, spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. “The destruction is massive.”
The flooding, which the U.N. estimates has affected 1 million people nationwide, comes at a time when the Pakistani government is already grappling with a faltering economy and a war against the Taliban.
The United States announced Sunday that it would provide Pakistan with $10 million in humanitarian assistance, a high-profile gesture at a time when the Obama administration is trying to dampen anti-American sentiment in the country.
The 1,100 death toll from the flooding could go even higher since rescue workers have been unable to access certain areas, said Adnan Khan, a disaster management official.
Almost 700 people have drowned in the Peshawar valley, which includes the districts of Nowshera and Charsadda, and 115 others are still missing, Khan said.
The districts of Swat and Shangla have also been hit hard and have suffered more than 400 deaths, said Mujahid Khan, the head of rescue services for the Edhi Foundation, a private charity.
Residents of Swat were still trying to recover from a major battle between the army and the Taliban last spring that caused widespread destruction and drove some 2 million people from their homes. About 1 million of those were still displaced.
In Swat alone, the floods have destroyed more than 14,600 houses and 22 schools, said Khan.
Authorities have deployed 43 military helicopters and more than 100 boats to try to rescue some 27,300 people still trapped by the floods, said Rehman, the disaster management spokesman.
“All efforts are being used to rescue people stuck in inaccessible areas and all possible help is being provided to affected people,” said Rehman.
But some residents stepped up their criticism Sunday of the government’s response.
“The flood has devastated us all, and I don’t know where my family has gone,” said Hakimullah Khan, a resident of Charsadda town who complained the government has not helped him search for his missing wife and three children.
“Water is all around and there is no help in sight,” said Khan.
The military deployed 30,000 army troops who helped rescue more than 20,700 people, said Khan, the disaster management official.
However, some people like Sehar Ali Shah who were rescued complained that authorities didn’t provide shelter that would allow them to stay until the floodwaters receded.
“My son drowned, but I don’t see the government taking care of us,” said Shah after returning to his half-submerged house in the city of Nowshera. “The government has not managed an alternate place to shift us.”
The flooding has also affected the central Pakistani province of Punjab, where troops rescued more than 1,400 people trapped by rising water, said Brig. Ahmad Waqas.
“We have lost everything: our houses, our crops, cattle,” said Ahmad Hasan at a government relief camp in Taunsa Sharif district.
The threat of disease loomed as well as some evacuees in the northwest arrived in camps with fever, diarrhea and skin problems.
“There is now a real danger of the spread of waterborne diseases like diarrhea, asthma, skin allergies and perhaps cholera in these areas,” said Shaharyar Bangash, the head of operations in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa for World Vision, an international humanitarian group.
A variety of nations and aid organizations have begun to mobilize a response to the disaster.
The U.S. delivered thousands of food packages, four rescue boats and two water-filtration units to the northwest, said Rehman.
“This is much-needed stuff in the flood-affected areas and we need more of it from the international community,” said Rehman.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad also announced it will provide 12 prefabricated steel bridges to temporarily replace those damaged by the water.
But some residents wondered how they would ever recover from such a disaster.
“I won’t be able to cover my losses for 10 years,” said Shair Dad, a timber shop owner in Nowshera who lost most of his wood in the floodwaters.
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Associated Press writers Nabeel Yusuf in Nowshera and Khalid Tanveer in Taunsa Sharif contributed to this report.
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This is one of the many reasons that we need home food storage.
I have had people say to me that their food storage is the things they put on the shelf and never touch unless they have an emergency. To that I say my food storage is everything that my family eats in the house. We use everything and rotate it. If my family does not like it or I cannot prepare it in a manner that my family likes it; there is no reason to have it in the house. If eats these items on a regular basis, their diet will not be changed in an emergency. Do not change your families diet in times of stress. Things are bad enough as they are.
Learn new ways to prepare foods that you have on the shelf now. Learn to prepare, serve and eat new foods. If you put a lot of foods that your family has never tasted on the shelf and count on keeping them alive in an emergency; you may regret your shopping choices. I have heard ladies tell their children; “If you were hungry enough you would eat anything.” Trust me there are things that I would not eat, if it cost me my life. And! It could cost us our life. If you have never made home make bread; If your family will not eat homemade bread; Do not store 100 pounds of wheat and nothing else. Trust me you will starve to death. Store enough of the things that your family enjoys eating on a daily basis and then lengthen your horizons.
Start your food storage with canned and packaged food that you know your family will eat and enjoy. Stock your shelves, refrigerator and the freezer with those items that your family eats and enjoys on a regular basis.
I dehydrate and can foods that we grow in our own yard are purchase at reasonable prices.
Learn new tricks. If you do not know how to can or freeze learn how. Go on the internet or to the public library and research how to do these things. It is hard but not difficult work, you can learn how.
If you purchase commercially freeze dried foods the taste more like the real food than you might expect. Not so much with commercially dried food products. However, I do dehydrate and use my one home grown foods. It keeps longer than the home canned and frozen foods. I store only the home canned and frozen that I know we will use within its shelf life. It is not that difficult to do. I don’t know very many people who would not do a lot of work and sacrifice to keep an member of their own family alive.
When making stews, soup, casseroles etc., if you find yourself out of a particular item that you usually have on hand. Open a can of freeze dried of a jar of your own home dried fruit or vegetable and throw it in. You will be pleased at how great it tastes and your family will learn to eat them and frequently will not even know what you have done.
As Julia Child would have said bon apatite.