The town of Khairpur Nathan Shah was flooded suddenly one-night last week when embankment defenses in the area gave way under the volume of water pushing against them. —This used to be a thriving town of more than 300,000 people, surrounded by rice fields in southern Pakistan. Now it takes 40 minutes on a motor boat to reach Khairpur Nathan Shah. The tops of tall houses, gas stations and factories poking out of the water now mark what is left of a town that has been swallowed up by a vast inland sea that emerged in recent days, as record monsoon rainfall accumulated in Sindh province. The inundated area is large enough to be visible from space, and some 200 miles long, NASA satellite images show. This summer, Pakistan has seen rainfall three times the average —the United Nations secretary-general last week called it a […]