The Flood Is Coming

On July 22, Mother Nature swelled, erupted, and wreaked devastating calamity on 20 million Pakistanis, inundating one-fifth of the country in water.

According to The New York Times, flooding began in the province of Baluchistan, rushed across the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, and hurled southward into Punjab and Sindh. The total area affected was about 62,000 square miles.

Needless to say, the ravenous waters decimated the country's infrastructure. More than 5,000 miles of roads and railways, 7,000 schools, and 400 hospitals were wholly annihilated. With an already vulnerable government and military, the flooding has easily set the nation back many years.

Yet the aid provided by the United Nations and the World Bank was not dispensed with the sense of urgency that the devastation required. The UN proposed a $460 million donation, but almost a month had passed before any of the money was transferred, and even then only one-third of that amount was provided.

The extremity of the devastation was ineffable. The flooding has directly affected more people than the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami in Asia, and Hurricane Katrina of 2005 combined. And now, the impact of the destruction will be felt right here in Plymouth.

Of the 20 million people displaced by the flooding, 160 were alumni from PSU, who had been stationed in Pakistan while working for PELI, a state-funded educational project.

PELI, which is short for the Pakistani Educational Leadership Project, "annually welcomes Pakistani educators to a summer institute hosted by Plymouth State University" to "learn about American innovations in education for adaption in Pakistan."

In light of PSU International Week, which will take place from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19, a number of events will be hosted to recognize the devastation in Pakistan. At 9:50 a.m. on Mon., Nov. 15, an opening ceremony will be held in the Fire Place Lounge in the HUB and will feature speakers Blake Allen of PELI, PSU President Sara J. Steen, International Week Organizer Jane Barry, and Student Body President Bryan Funk.

Amidst other eye-opening events, the Student Body Representatives, led by Funk, have one display planned which is sure to capture the severity of the flood and bring to light the reality of the disaster to PSU students. 

"We're so disconnected from everything that happens around the globe," said Funk, who hopes that the display will be powerful enough to strike students on a personal level. Funk intends for the display to impact students on an emotional level while simultaneously enlightening them to the size and gravity of the flood. "When you're educated and informed about something," he said, "you're responsible."

Though the details of the display are to be reserved for their actual debut on Monday, the neon yellow fliers that have been appearing on the bulletin boards and doors around campus, reading, "The Flood is Coming," are an abstract preview of what's to come. "I'm going for shock-and-awe here," said Funk. In the meantime, the hype and suspense continue to build.