What was meant to be a celebration turned into unimaginable tragedy when devastating floods swept away the family of 25-year-old Noor Muhammad in Pakistan’s Buner district, killing 24 of his relatives just two days before his wedding.
Standing by the rubble of his 36-room ancestral home in Qadir Nagar village, Muhammad recalled his last phone call with his mother, hours before she perished along with his siblings, uncles, grandfather, and children in the deluge. “The flood came, a huge flood came. It swept away everything – home, mother, sister, brother, my uncle, my grandfather and children,” he said, sobbing as mourners gathered at the wreckage.
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Muhammad, who works in Malaysia, had flown into Islamabad on August 15 for his wedding preparations. Instead, he attended 24 funerals. Only his father and one brother survived because they had gone to pick him up at the airport. His fiancée also survived as her home was away from the flood-hit area.
Authorities said Buner has been the worst hit by the ongoing monsoon disaster, with over 200 deaths reported in the district alone out of nearly 400 in northwest Pakistan since August 15. Nationwide, the toll has reached 776, with thousands displaced and more than 25,000 rescued by the army and air force.
Experts warn that the intense rains and rare cloudbursts, which dropped over 150 mm of rain in just one hour in Buner, are linked to climate change and may become more frequent. “It was complete chaos, a massive disaster,” said resident Muhammad Zeb. “This was a beautiful place with homes, but now the storm has swept everything away.”
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Of the 28 people in Noor Muhammad’s house, only four survived. Looking at the ruins, he whispered: “What else can we say? It’s God’s will.”
