Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee gathers with community leaders in Trinity Gardens last month. Jackson Lee and Rep. Al Green traveled to Pakistan this week to tour areas affected by extreme floods.
Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerU.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green traveled to Pakistan this weekend to meet with government officials and tour areas affected this summer by extreme floods.
The Houston representatives, joined by Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, were briefed by Pakistani military rescuers and worked to shore up short-term relief efforts. They met with Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif on Monday.
“As far as the eye could see, I saw water,” Jackson Lee said. “We saw people still racing to helicopters to be rescued as well as met and listened to the men, women and children who experienced the raging deadly waters.”
Monsoons and melting glaciers in the country’s northern mountains have caused floods that have killed more than 1,300 people, including 458 children, according to the Pakistani government.
Millions have been displaced, including an estimated 400,000 pregnant women in the Sindh province.
Green said the $30 million that the U.S. has pledged in relief funds “is not enough.”
“The richer nations of the world must do more to aid the people of Pakistan,” he said.
dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
