Pak­istan flood dis­as­ter update 

The Pak­istan Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety (PARS) reports that emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port for ham radio ama­teurs have been extend­ed in the past week to three more vil­lages. PARS emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions organ­is­er Asad Mar­wat AP2AUM said food and non-food items have been pro­vid­ed to around 1,000 fam­i­lies in the Charsad­da and Now­shera areas. He said that a med­ical camp was also estab­lished which treat­ed almost 700 patients main­ly suf­fer­ing from Skin and Gas­tro diseases.
The Unit­ed Nations esti­mates 20 mil­lion have been affect­ed across Pak­istan by the flood dis­as­ter and 1600 lives lost. Asad AP2AUM said that the area is not cov­ered under the 2‑metre repeater foot­print so com­mu­ni­ca­tions have been restric­tion to sim­plex oper­a­tion with­in the group. He said that about 30 hams are pro­vid­ing help to those who have fled the flood­ed areas.
Addi­tion­al­ly hand-held radios and cross band repeaters and anten­nas have been offered from Turkey. Once they arrive, said Asad AP2AUM, the relief oper­a­tion can be suc­cess­ful­ly expand­ed into Inner Pun­jab Province. PARS con­tin­ues work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Islam­abad Jeep Club mem­bers with their 4WD sport util­i­ty vehi­cles deliv­er­ing essen­tial relief sup­plies, with med­ical help being pro­vid­ed by the Pak­istan Acad­e­my of Fam­i­ly Physicians.
— IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee Chair­man, Jim Lin­ton VK3PC.