(2 Aug 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Wide aerial of flood water
2. Various aerials of flood damaged roads, buildings and bridges
3. Wide top shot of devastation from flood waters
4. Various of collapsed buildings and roads along flood water's edge
5. Wide of queue of people waiting to be evacuated
6. SOUNDBITE (Pashto) Jaffar Shah, Local Provincial Assembly member:
"The entire main road from Behrain to Kalam is totally damaged and destroyed. People are in deep trouble, 40 thousand local residents and two to three thousand tourists are all stuck here."
7. Various of people boarding helicopters evacuating area
STORYLINE
The death toll from massive floods in northwestern Pakistan rose to 11-hundred on Sunday as rescue workers struggled to save more than 27-thousand people still trapped by the raging water.
In the Swat Valley region, the floods destroyed more than 14-thousand houses and 22 schools, according to the head of rescue services for the Edhi Foundation, a private charity.
A local official in Kalam said people were "in deep trouble".
Local Provincial Assembly member Jaffar Shah on Sunday said "40-thousand local residents and two to three-thousand tourists are all stuck here", as hundreds queued to evacuate the region by helicopter.
The floods caused an acute shortage of fruits and vegetables in the northwest because many of the hardest hit areas were the key centres of production, officials said.
The threat of disease now looms as well.
Some evacuees already arrived in camps with fever, diarrhoea and skin problems.
The United Nations has estimated that one (m) million people nationwide have been affected by the floods and the scope of the tragedy has strained the resources of a government already grappling with a faltering economy and a brutal battle against the Taliban.
The catastrophe has also opened up a new front in the US campaign against Islamist militants, with both groups competing to deliver emergency aid to a region under constant threat of the Taliban.
The Pakistani army launched a major offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley last spring, sparking an offensive that caused widespread destruction and drove some two (m) million people from their homes.
The government said that rehabilitating the area was key to keeping out the militants, a goal that was already hampered by a shortage of funds and now will be much harder to accomplish because of the devastating floods.
On Sunday, the United States announced that it would provide Pakistan with 10 (m) million US dollars in humanitarian assistance, a high-profile gesture at a time when the administration of US President Barack Obama is trying to dampen anti-American sentiment in the country.
The US has delivered thousands of food packages, four rescue boats and two water-filtration units to the northwest.
The US embassy in Islamabad also announced it would provide 12 pre-fabricated steel bridges to temporarily replace those damaged by the water.
In 2005, the US provided emergency assistance after Pakistan experienced a catastrophic earthquake that killed nearly 80-thousand people.
But like the earthquake relief effort, the US must compete with aid groups run by militants who also use assistance to increase their support.
In one district of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, the northwest province ravaged by the floods, representatives from a charity allegedly linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militants distributed food and offered medical services on Sunday in Charsada, one of the areas hit hardest by the floods.
The US military says the group has stepped up activity in Afghanistan as well.
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