Pakistan flooding claims over 1,000 lives

In Pakistan, families are wading through flooded homes looking for belongings to salvage. Heavy monsoon rains across the country have killed nearly 1,000 people, officials said Saturday. Pakistan’s prime minister asked for international help to battle the deadly flood damage. It affected all four of the country’s provinces and destroyed nearly 300,000 homes.

Why is the flooding so bad? The monsoon season started earlier than normal this year. Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani senator and the country’s top climate official, called it the “monster monsoon of the decade.”

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report in The Sift about political upheaval in Pakistan.