South Asia struggles after deadly storms

Pakistani rescue workers struggled on Wednesday to reach villagers, some stranded in trees, after a cyclone hit the coast, while in India, snakes and scorpions hampered efforts to help storm victims. Early rainy season storms in South Asia have killed nearly 400 people since late last week and more bad weather for at least parts of the region is on the way, weather officials said. More than 250,000 people in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan were affected by a cyclone that hit on Tuesday, killing at least 17 people, a disaster management official said."The situation is out of our hands, it's out of control. The entire town has been inundated and people have taken refuge in tall buildings and trees," Rauf Rind, the mayor of the town of Kach, told Reuters by telephone. The Kach district, near the Iranian border, was also in danger from an over-flowing dam. The water level at the Mirani dam had reached a critical point and was rising, and about 10,000 people were in danger, officials said. Stretches of road and several bridges along the coast have been swept away, while communications with worst-hit areas are patchy, and much of the coast is without power. Many mud houses had collapsed, officials said. Head of a provincial disaster management authority, Khuda Bakhsh Baluch, cited estimates of more than 250,000 people affected. Three districts had been inundated and tens of thousands of people were stranded, he said."The three districts are totally cut off from the world. At the moment, they're not getting any relief goods because even helicopters can't fly due to bad weather," Baluch said. Scattered rain was expected until Thursday.

Tropical cyclone Yemyin hit Baluchistan three days after another storm struck Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, killing about 230 people, many when fierce wind brought down slum houses. (CNN)