I think the amount of damage could have been minimized if the MET departement was not incompetent.
The following is the chart of Wheat Futures for septembet’10 on CBOE and the time line of flood in pakistan a major wheat producing and consuming nation.
Look at the jump in price just before the flood hit pakistan. The futures traders have the most complete data of weather patterns around the globe.
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/charts/CW90.GIF
ISLAMABAD: Here is a timeline of events since devastating floods hit Pakistan on July 29, killing an estimated 1,600 people in two weeks, according to the United Nations.
- July 29: Flash floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains hit northwestern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir as the country mourns its worst aviation disaster, which killed 152 people in Islamabad.
- July 31: Local authorities say the floods have killed at least 800. The deluge kills another 65 people in mountains across the border in Afghanistan.
- August 2: The UN says that nearly 980,000 people have been left homeless or have been displaced.
- The Red Cross appeals for aid.
- August 4: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani calls on his administration to speed up the delivery of aid. There is a growing backlash against the civilian government and President Asif Ali Zardari over failures to provide food, water and sanitation to the victims.
- August 5: The UN estimates that the flooding has killed 1,600 people in northwestern Pakistan alone.
- Numerous cases of diarrhoea.
- The UN says it has received 18 million dollars of international aid.
- August 6: Pakistan declares a red alert as the flooding worsens, reaching the south and leading to the evacuation of half a million people.
- The floods have affected 12 million people in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, the National Disaster Management Agency says.
- August 7: In the south, notably in the densely populated province of Sindh, a million people are evacuated, bringing to 15 million the number affected across the country according to the local authorities.
- August 8: Landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan province in the far north.
- Gilani visits flood-hit areas of Sindh province, calling again for international aid.
- August 9: Around 13.8 million people have been affected by the floods in Pakistan, making the scale of the disaster worse than the 2004 tsunami, 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a UN official says.
- August 10: Six million people need humanitarian aid in order to survive, according to the UN.
- Zardari returns to Pakistan, after a European tour for which he was criticised.
- **August 11: **The UN appeals for 460 million dollars in emergency aid for flood victims.