ISLAMABAD — About 800,000 people have been cut off by floods in Pakistan and are reachable only by air, the United Nations said Tuesday, adding that it needs at least 40 more helicopters to ferry lifesaving aid to increasingly desperate people.
The appeal was an indication of the massive problems facing the relief effort in Pakistan more than three weeks after the floods hit the country, affecting more than 17 million people and raising concerns about social unrest and political instability.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said hundreds of health facilities had been damaged and tens of thousands of medical workers displaced, and the country’s chief meteorologist warned that it would be two weeks until the Indus River — the focus of the flooding still sweeping through the country — returns to normal levels.
