Hi there,

In this chaotic news cycle it may be tempting to tune out, but we hope you won’t—only an informed and engaged public can defend democracy. In these times of deep political polarization we need news that goes beyond play-by-play headlines, news that goes to the heart of each story by asking people to tell their own stories of abuses of power and injustice in their own words. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

UN: 13 Million People Affected by Floods in Pakistan

HeadlineAug 10, 2010

The United Nations says the number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan has now exceeded 13 million — more than the combined total of people affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined, though the death toll in Pakistan is far lower. The UN says just under 300,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged — almost the same as those destroyed in Haiti. At least 1,600 people have died in Pakistan, and two million have been left homeless. The Islamic Relief charity says the floods have destroyed the entire infrastructure of parts of Pakistan.

Michael O’Brien, International Committee of the Red Cross in Pakistan: “I would say that, early on, the scope of this disaster might have been a little underestimated. It’s really quite catastrophic in its proportions, and it’s going to have a long-term impact. But in terms of the international community, I think they’re probably aware of the problem now. The issue is no country would have coped easily with the extent of the damage that’s been caused here. It’s just enormous.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top