Modeling Pakistan's flooding
The catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, which began with the annual monsoons towards the end of July 2010, has affected nearly 62,000 square miles -- or one fourth of the entire surface of the USA and Alaska. Six million are homeless. Eight million children are at risk of disease. More than 1,600 are dead already. Flood waters have washed away entire towns, thousands of miles of roads and railways, and damaged the infrastructure of a large portion of the country. Thousands of health facilities are destroyed and rising waters have inundated crop-producing areas, threatening a food crisis. The Pakistani government now struggles to rescue and provide aid to millions -- while still fighting with militant Islamist forces in many of the hardest-hit regions.