Floodwaters inundated Sujawal, a large town in southern Pakistan, on Sunday as authorities struggled to build new levees with clay and stone to prevent one of the area's biggest cities from suffering the same fate.Almost all of Sujawal's 250,000 residents fled the town before the water rushed in, but the damage to homes, clinics and schools added to the widespread devastation the floods have caused across Pakistan, said Hadi Baksh, a disaster management official in Sindh province.
The floodwaters also threatened Thatta, a historic city of some 350,000 people who have mostly fled to higher ground. Thatta is the base of operations for local authorities trying to cope with a disaster that has overwhelmed the government and international partners who have stepped in to help.
Authorities rushed to build makeshift levees across the road connecting Sujawal and Thatta, parts of which were already flooded, Baksh said.
''We are trying to plug the bridges at three different points to stop the water flow toward Thatta,'' said Baksh. ''We are trying all our best efforts.''
The floods began in the mountainous northwest about a month ago with the onset of monsoon rains and have moved slowly down the country toward the coast in the south, inundating vast swaths of prime agricultural land and damaging or destroying more than one million homes.
More than eight million people are in need of emergency assistance across the country.
The United Nations, the Pakistani army and a host of local and international relief groups have been rushing aid workers, medicine, food and water to the affected regions, but are unable to reach many people.
The US said Saturday that it would deploy an additional 18 helicopters to help with the relief effort. The US military is already operating 15 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft in the country, the US Embassy said in a statement.