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In Pakistan, authorities on Sunday defended their response to climate-induced flash floods that killed more than 270 people in a single northwestern district.

Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency service, said 54 bodies were found in Buner, a mountainous part in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding on Friday.

Suhail said villagers remain missing, and search efforts are focused on areas where homes were flattened by torrents of water that swept down from the mountains, carrying boulders that smashed into houses like explosions.

Authorities have warned of more deluges and possible landslides between now and Tuesday, urging local administrations to remain on alert. have lashed the country since June 26 and killed more than 600.

Warnings of more intense rain to come

Residents in Buner have accused officials of failing to warn them to evacuate after torrential rain and cloudbursts triggered deadly flooding and landslides. There was no warning broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, a traditional method in remote areas.

The government said that while an early warning system was in place, the sudden downpour in Buner was so intense that the deluge struck before residents could be alerted.

Lt. Gen. Inam Haider, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, told a hastily convened news conference in Islamabad that Pakistan was experiencing shifting weather patterns because of climate change. Since the monsoon season began in June, Pakistan has already received 50% more rainfall than in the same period last year, he added.

He warned that more intense weather could follow, with heavy rains forecast to continue this month.

Asfandyar Khan Khattak, director-general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said there was “no forecasting system anywhere in the world� that could predict the exact time and location of a cloudburst.

Mohammad Iqbal, a schoolteacher in Pir Baba village, said the lack of a timely warning system caused casualties and forced many to flee their homes at the last moment.

“Survivors escaped with nothing,� he said. “If people had been informed earlier, lives could have been saved and residents could have moved to safer places.�

People still missing

Idrees Mahsud, a disaster management official, said Pakistan’s early warning system used satellite imagery and meteorological data to send alerts to local authorities. These were shared through the media and community leaders. He said monsoon rains that once only swelled rivers now also triggered urban flooding.

An emergency services spokesman in Buner, Mohammad Sohail, said more than half the damaged roads in the district had reopened by Sunday, allowing vehicles and heavy machinery to reach cut-off villages.

Crews were clearing piles of rocks and mud dumped by the floods. They were still using heavy machinery to remove the rubble of collapsed homes after families reported that some of their relatives were missing.

In one of the deadliest incidents, 24 people from one family died in the village of Qadar Nagar when floodwaters swept through their home on the eve of a wedding. The head of the family, Umar Khan, said he survived the floods because he was out of the house at the time. Four of his relatives have yet to be found, he added.

Extreme weather

Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters. In 2022, killed nearly 1,700 people and destroyed millions of homes.

The country also suffers regular flash floods and landslides during the monsoon season, which runs from June to September, particularly in the rugged northwest, where villages are often perched on steep slopes and riverbanks.

Experts say the frequency and severity of such extreme weather events in South Asia.

Khalid Khan, a weather expert, said Pakistan produces less than 1% of planet-warming emissions but faces heatwaves, heavy rains, glacial outburst floods and now cloudbursts, underscoring how climate change is devastating communities within hours.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Rasool Dawar in Buner, Pakistan, contributed to this story.