Pakistan floods cause unprecedented loss
18.7 million people affected. 20 percent of the country &mdash the size of Florida &mdash inundated. $43 billion (24 percent of Pakistan's GDP) in total damage. More than 2,000 people killed. These numbers only begin to give a sense of the suffering caused by flooding in Pakistan. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon said, "I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this."However, while flood waters surge south, foreign aid merely trickles into Pakistan. This lack of support engenders severe long-term consequences, such as the rise of the Taliban, the destruction of Pakistan's already fragile quasi-democratic government and the collapse of their fledgling economy.