So far at least 1,500 killed, 14-20 million affected, 3.5 million children at health risk, nearly 1 million houses damaged, and $1-2 billion upwards of crop damage. Possibly the low numbers of people killed has resulted in the lackluster international response. A timeline is here.

Most comprehensive source for information is ReliefWeb’s Pakistan Floods page. Frequent updates on news, situation, maps (lots of maps), and funding.

Dave’s Landslide Blog — an excellent overview of how the flooding began: The regular seasonal monsoon rains started on July 27th, initially impacting the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province (formerly NWFP). The following graph shows the sudden increase in rainfall in that region from July 29th.

“The loss of life appears to have been the result of a combination of losses in the main rivers and their tributaries, flash floods in upper catchments, collapses of mud brick houses, and landslides.” — Dave’s Landslide Blog.

Downstream the impact of the incredibly heavy rainfall on the Indus River catchment shows increased inflows.

Daily rainfall records from the Pakistan Meteorological Department — you can map your own data! Compare the rainfall over the July and August 2008 and 2009 with what we see now. The worst seems to be behind us.

Devastating floods cut off parts of Pakistan: “Shelter, plastic sheeting and household goods are the most important gap. Stocks need to be urgently airlifted to the affected areas.” — DAWN

NASA image before the floods moved south (August 10th)

NASA image one day after(August 11th)

Dave’s Landslide Blog — has excellent analysis of rainfall, river levels, and other related info such as:

The Attabad dam threat: formed in January 2010 as a result of a landslide. The water level in the dam reached its highest level in mid-July. There has been some talk of reducing the water level by controlled blasting, but to date nothing has been done. There remains the ptential for the Attabad dam to collapse, but so far the reservoir has been safe from the rainfall.

Relation with Russian wildfires and the Jetstreams, at the Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog at Weather Underground. In simple words, the normal jetstreams that keep separate the hot and dry weather of Pakistan from the cold wet wet weather of Northern Europe (left image) went wonky (right image). This resulted in their normal rainfall being dumped into Pakistan and thus an extremely dry Russia. And this was on top of the regular monsoon rains!

The August 3rd report by Save the Children reports that 32% of households are affected by the floods, 21% of housing structures and 26% of school buildings have been damaged, and standing crops and orchards have been badly damaged (these are the main source of income and food). Link (PDF) to full report: Rapid Assessment Report of Flood-Affected Communities in Swat District

8-12th August 2010 Analysis of probably flood-affected villages, towns and infrastructure along the Indus River, Sindh Province, Pakistan (large PDF)

KKH is blocked through till mid-September, according to chairman NDMA. Air routes are dependent on the weather, which has been volatile to the extent of severely limited relief efforts. Donkeys and mules are the way to go. Meanwhile, with food, water and fuel shortages, hunger strikes Gilgit-Baltistan, “The vulnerable-to-weather air supply system has failed to provide relief to far flung villages of the region which are worst hit due to flash floods and landslides. Prolonged disruption of the supply routes has the potential to make hundreds of families face starvation in different remote parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.”

Mothers cry for children missing in floods “”My husband worked for years to build our house but now there is nothing left. We did not manage to salvage anything except some clothes,” she said.”

National Disaster Management Authority — Not much here, expect maybe the comparison with other disasters PDF.

PakMet Pakistan Meterological Department — Lots here, browse around for high-resolution GIS maps, flood warnings, rainfall data, and much more from their Flood Forecasting Division. Especially interesting are the six-hourly hydrographs. Inflow at Sukkur seems to be leveling off.

Pakistan after the flood, a longer-term perspective: “The waters will recede, and life will go back to what it was. The real problem isn’t the flood, it’s the fact that life will return back to where it was before the floods, and that the entire effort of the country and it’s many ‘allies’ is directed to that end.”

What can you do to help?

Donate your time, efforts (or money) to your own efforts (as many are doing), or to any of the local or international organizations involved with the flood relief efforts. Offroad Pakistan together with the Motorsports Club of Pakistan is involved with the relief efforts, details at Awab Alvi’s blog and Faisal Kapadia’s blog, and how to donate here. Pictures of the efforts here and here.

A more complete list of relief organisations.

Image sources: Ali Khurshid for the photos, Dave’s Landslide Blog for the graphs, and other websites linked within.

Lahore, June 2, 2010 – Riding the wave of success of its previous initiatives from earlier this year, the Azme Alishan movement launched the Azme Alishan National Song Competition with the support of international superstars Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia of Strings. The Azme Alishan movement’s manifesto is to revive the same spirit of nationhood and community that lies at the heart of the vision of Pakistan. Azme Alishan aims to highlight the great Pakistani youth musical talent within Pakistan and all across the world with this televised competition, which starts airing on your favorite channels with its first episode from Saturday, June 05, 2010. The TV shows will continue throughout the summer, concluding with the grand finale announcing the winner on August 14th.

The competition opened mid-March with a request for all Pakistanis from within and across borders to send in their original national song entries – no song covers were entertained. For the television show, a star studded jury panel has been established which will feature the likes of Pakistani super model Vinnie, the multifaceted Arshad Mahmood and acclaimed music producer and previous member of the legendry band Vital Signs, Shahzad Hassan (Shahi), Khalid Anwar from Aaroh, Najam Shiraz and many others as guest judges along with Strings who are the permanent judges.

On the first day of shooting, Arshad Mahmood, and the Strings judged the show. Speaking to us after the completion of the first episode, a jubilant Faisal Kapadia of Strings said, “This show highlights that the people of Pakistani are not only talented but they still posses the great resolve in their hearts that led to the formation of our dear homeland. This is a great initiative by Azme Alishan to give our nation a new anthem”.

The contest received an overwhelmingly high response and it became an immense task to shortlist the top 30 entries for the TV show. These 30 contestants will battle it out on the TV show where they will sing live in studio at the time of recording and shall contest to win for two great honors; one, to have their song win and become the official Azme Alishan anthem for Pakistan and second, to get a chance to have their song made on a professional 35mm video by an acclaimed director from Pakistan.

A composed Bilal Maqsood of the Strings stated, “When we sat in the judges seats we didn’t know what to expect but it was an awesome experience and we were amazed to see this young talent and their passion towards their original song lyrics and compositions”.

The competition will be to choose initially top 10 finalists and then the winner with the winning song. These will also be featured on the Azme Alishan national song compilation CD. To listen to all shortlisted entries and rank your favorites and also to find out more details on the Azme Alishan song competition keep logging on to www.azmealishan.com.

The Textile Institute of Pakistan is a leading institute imparting Textile education in all related fields of Textile Industry since 1994. Textile Institute of Pakistan offers degree programs in Textile Design, Science, Management, Apparel and now offering two new graduate programs, Fashion Design Management and BBA.

As the clock began to show 8:00 people started forming lines and gathered at the amphitheater to indulge them with the concert. Many students which were not the official members of TISF took part in checking and organizing the event. The location of concert was Amphitheater. It was adorned exquisitely with glistening lights which sparkled in many different shades throughout the band performances. The concert started with an underground band “THE ASHES”. They sang all the songs really well, the crowd enjoyed a lot. But the main attention of the event was the performance of Karavan band which everybody was anxiously waiting for. When they performed, everybody got lost in their beats.

Large numbers of people was dancing crazily, were doing karaoke with the band and were reveling. They sang many songs and the people kept dancing and dancing. When Karavan was about to end their performance people literally shouted and begged for once more. They ended the evening with a local yet mesmerizing song “Dama-dam-mast-kalandar”. It was really nice to see that the people who were not in the favour of the concert enjoyed the event at their best. The crowd turnover was very great; more than 350 people came in the concert which included tremendous amount of texperts and outsiders. Nevertheless, the event was no doubt a roof-raiser. I congratulate all the team of TISF and unofficial members who took part in organizing this event without any benefit and making this evening unforgettable for us.

At about 6 pm the basant started, there were few kites in the sky, as the wind wasn’t favorable, but still we had people dancing on the beats of the DHOOL. About half an hour later, after the basant started, the STING hummer came in, with loads of free STING, how can you resist when getting something for free?? (Even I had 10… :p) people enjoyed free STING, kite flying (a few) and pervez bhai ki chat (how can I forget that) soon both the bands arrived, and as the day light ended the basant was almost over. People were anxious to get in the amphitheatre. Just after the band was done with their sound check, the announcements were made and people started entering the theatre.

As the concert started, first performance was by the ASHES, later when the KARAVAN came on the stage, they just rocked the show. People started shouting like hell and banging their heads on the beats and then those shouts of “Once more… Once more…” from the audience win over the band to sing till they were exhausted completely. The show was extremely good and was a big hit by team TISF.

In the end, I would again like to thank everyone, each and every member of organizing committee, and each student of TIP who really made it happening. Thank you everyone, and for those who were part of organizing committee will receive a certificate from TISF, please give your details to your respective TISF elected committee head.