Several people fainted in those 15 minutes that it took to ask the funeral prayer for cyclone victims in village Raj Mallah in district Thatta. 85 dead bodies formed the foreground for the congregation. And there were few who did not have more than one dear one among those they had come to bury.
"I did not learn to walk on the land, but on the waves and the sea bead. I know the twists and turns of the sea," said a broken 30-year old Mehmant Soomar trembling with an effort to not to revisualize what had happened. "But the waves were too horrifying. They behaved like a dragon and devoured all my children. I tried to save them but I was helpless," sobbed the strong man who had survived the ordeal of fighting the mad dragon for two days and returning to safety. Of his extended clan only his wife Kubra had lived. He met her at the relief camp.
Hurricane Thuth came to town at 11: 00am to darken the lives of thousands living on Sindh's coastline. The villagers were sound asleep. They had no warning of an impending doom. Tidal waves over 20 feet high raised village after village to ground along the Thatha and Badin districts. Wind speeds of over 270 km per hour made the massive downpour of rain an unbearable punishment. Down pour continued throughout the night and intermittently on Friday.
Over 500 people are feared dead and more than 6000 are missing, according to conservative estimates. government sources, however, insist that total number of deaths is below 300.
"164 bodies were recovered
from Raj Malik village in Thatta district said Thatta Deputy Commissioner
Dr. Mumtaz Uqali. "Bodies were strewn on trees and rolled in mud", he said.
Dead were being buried in mass graves of 10 to 15 bodies.
For details see Down To Earth, May 30 1999 at the Centre for Science and Environment's website. URL: http://www.cseindia.org
South Asia Media Group on Disaster Mitigation
Collaboration: Duryog Nivaran, Sri Lanka & Journalists Resource Centre Pakistan
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