The Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan has been hit hardest, where some 100 people have died and hundreds are reported missing. Over 200,000 houses in 15 districts of Balochistan have been damaged, with communications interrupted, power cut off, and fields flooded. Residents in flood-hit districts have insufficient food, medicines, and fresh water.
"There is a desperate need for tents, and we have already addressed the global community for assistance," Raziq Bugti, official spokesman for the Balochistan government, said. "We need at least 100,000 tents for homeless families."
Although authorities have been delivering humanitarian assistance by helicopters, their efforts have been insufficient.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the flooded districts Sunday. He said the central authorities would establish nonstop air transportation of relief material to affected areas.
Another cyclone which hit Karachi, the capital of Sind, at the end of June left 250 people dead and the country's largest city was flooded and virtually paralyzed for two days.
In 1965 a tropical storm killed some 10,000 people in Karachi and adjacent districts.
